Direct impact is associated with providers of services at the airport. The value of direct impact is the sum of all payroll, capital expenditures, operating and maintenance costs, taxes, and fees incurred by every provider of services. Strictly speaking, direct impacts should represent economic activities that would not occur in the absence of the airport. When approaching service providers on the airport with the survey form, it is important to convey to them that you will not provide sensitive financial information from the form to anyone else and that only form totals will be used. It's also best if you make the completion of the form anonymous with no direct reference to the specific business.
Indirect impact is associated with the users of airport services.
These include both corporate and public users, government agencies, and aviation and non-aviation businesses. The value of this impact is the sum of the fees and charges paid, time and cost savings, and expense related to food, lodging, ground transportation, and similar outlays. By quickly calculating the impact of itinerant operations and adding that figure to the direct economic impact, a total economic impact is developed. It gets this name because a dollar, once spent, does not disappear but continues to move through the local economy until it is incrementally exported from the community. Each new dollar spent effectively multiplies its own economic effect.