I am seeing hugely inflated reports of airport activity in local government.
Dare I say it, deliberately fabricated and over-inflated claims.
The economic justification for the $23.5m Scone Airport upgrade, for example, is intentionally false.
RAAus is rather cock a'hoop at the moment but GA is moribund. The underlying reason for this is that CASA continues to provide RAAus pilots privileges (such as self-certified medical and PPL-qualified instructors) not afforded to Licenced pilots. Those above can Squark all they like about the AOPA vs RAAus rift but the underlying truth is that RAAus is seeking membership (and revenue) growth at the expense of other sectors of GA, and AOPA has called them on it. AOPA seeks greater freedom for ALL pilots but RAAus sees that as a competitive threat.
The tragedy is that AOPA should be an industry lobby group for all GA, but have been wedged by RAAus into defending themselves and their non-Sports membership against RAAus territorial aggression. RAAus is like China in GA's South China Sea.
BITRE statistics show a 25% drop in GA activity from 2002 to 2016. If you exclude RAAus numbers the total drop is even worse. Those who think GA is doing great are having themselves on and deliberately ignoring the evidence around them.