'FDB' does pen a load of tosh.
Unless the locals (read tax payers & their appointed spenders) choose to subsidize the operating costs of an airfield in the vicinity, it's facilities will rely on its own traffic & perhaps a trickle of businesses use. [Or a benificent owner !]
In fact apart from one's wish that airfields be kept available as such, it's simply a standard business case. i.e. An owner's investment in the field & its operating costs, compared with the return it (hopefully) generates.
A busy city airport may have the need for & generates sufficient traffic to equate what it brings in overall benefit to the community.
Meanwhile forums demonstrate the antithesis with spasmodic grizzling about landing fees etc. This mind set pressurizes service suppliers to charge the lowest possible, and so the matter recirculates.
Strip owners, contrarily, generally do it for fun and rarely need to consider profit and loss.
mike hallam (Jackrells Farm)