While the struggling US economy continues to affect aircraft operations at existing airports across the country, making forecasting future activity challenging at best, imagine trying to develop forecast for a general aviation (GA) airport that does not yet have any operations. ESA Airports was asked to do just this when retained by the March Joint Powers Authority (JPA) to develop a GA aircraft operations forecast for the March Inland Airport; the civilian side of the joint use March Air Reserve Base (RIV) in Riverside, California. ESA Airports' Mike Arnold who led the forecasting effort said “GA aircraft activity is closely tied to population and economic growth, which the Inland Empire had seen quite a bit of until the economy started to falter a couple of years ago.” Despite the economic downtown, it quickly became clear that March Inland Airport would attract a portion of the region’s GA activity provided that the facilities (e.g., apron, hangars, fueling, etc.) to support GA aircraft operations were available on the March JPA’s portion of RIV. Obtaining federal and state environmental approval for the required GA facilities is currently underway with ESA Airports taking the lead on the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) documentation. “ESA Airports did a fantastic job documenting the demand for GA facilities at March Inland Airport at a time when most of the targets were moving,” said Gary Gosliga, Airport Director. Only time will tell as to how quickly GA activity at RIV takes off, but the ESA Airports forecast provides a sound basis for believing that there is a future for GA activity at March Inland Airport.