Airports provide the basal infrastructure for air-based transportation. Adequate access to time-critical transportation, in particular, can enhance the resilience of a region. However, common approaches for estimating the economic effects of an airport on local, regional, and national economies have overlooked such resilience effects. This paper examines the potential effects of airports on societal resilience at the regional level, while also considering the value of regional airports from a national perspective. It focuses on several factors that can enhance the resilience of society, such as handling the consequences of natural hazards, providing rescue services for citizens and visitors, ensuring the provision of health care in sparsely inhabited regions, managing prison and probation services, and maintaining critical processes. The results support the consideration of the resilience effects that an airport provides to the surrounding region and society in general in analyses of the social and economic effects of airports. Thereby, the paper contributes to the development of economic models that include the value of critical infrastructure for societal resilience.