Each year, 166 million passengers, including many from your community, fly on the small airplanes of General Aviation (GA). That makes the 224,000 airplanes of GA the nation’s largest "airline." That’s more passengers than American Airlines, United Air Lines, and Northwest Airlines combined.

America’s system of airports and network of "highways in the sky" is much like the national highway system. Both are financed using a simple tax placed upon every gallon of fuel used to power cars, trucks, or airplanes. And both serve the needs of all Americans.

Your local community airport works just like an on-ramp to the Interstate Highway System. It lets you and the people living in or near your community access our nationwide system of air transportation. Many GA flights go between small community airports, and some are used to take people to large airports where they can catch a flight with one of the airlines.

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