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Shared by IRPO–Report: Airports Contribute $61 Billion, 373,000 Jobs to N.C. Economy

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Rutherford County’s Airport– Marchman Field in 2020 (the only airport within Isothermal RPO)

85 Jobs

$3,720,000 in Personal Income

$746,00 in State and Local Taxes

$13,740,000 in Economic Output

RALEIGH – North Carolina’s publicly owned airports contribute $61 billion to the state’s economy each year and support 373,000 jobs, according to a report released by the N.C. Department of Transportation’s Division of Aviation.

Airports and aviation-related jobs also provide $15 billion in personal income and contribute $2.5 billion in state and local tax revenues every year, based on 2019 data.

The report, North Carolina: The State of Aviation, highlights the pre-pandemic economic impacts of the state’s public airports and the related aviation and aerospace assets that support North Carolina’s aviation economy. NCDOT creates the report every two years to help guide future investment in aviation infrastructure and provide a tool for recruiting aviation and aerospace industry companies and investment.

“Despite the challenges of 2020, our network of 72 publicly owned airports, and the aviation and aerospace assets that rely on them, still help move our economy forward by creating jobs, supporting business growth and connecting people and companies to markets around the globe,” said Bobby Walston, director of NCDOT’s Division of Aviation.

The COVID-19 pandemic brought significant impacts to the airports. Commercial airline travel declined, for example, while private air charters and air freight operations reached record highs. While this report does not include the impacts of the pandemic, the 2019 impact data demonstrates aviation’s economic contribution to the state and local communities and provides a benchmark for tracking recovery.

North Carolina’s public airport system boasts 10 commercial service and 62 general aviation airports that connect local businesses and communities to global markets, house and refuel private aircraft, support military and agricultural aviation and statewide emergency response, and provide aviation services such as aerial photography and pilot training. The commercial service airports also offer regularly scheduled passenger service.

All airports generate significant economic return for their communities and the state. For instance, North Carolina’s public airports lease space to more than 3,300 private aircraft that generate more than $11.6 million in property tax revenues for their communities each year. The owner of a $23 million aircraft based at a North Carolina airport pays local property taxes equivalent to those paid by owners of 115 homes valued at $200,000 each.

The report contains data compiled and analyzed for NCDOT by North Carolina State University’s Institute for Transportation Research and Education. Impacts are calculated based on factors such as jobs supported by the airports and the businesses that rely on them, business and leisure travelers, and airport capital projects and operations.

View the full report, including the breakdown of each individual airport’s contributions, at www.ncdot.gov/aviation.

***NCDOT***

Shared by IRPO–myFutureNC County-Level Profiles

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myFutureNC is a statewide nonprofit organization focused on educational attainment and is the result of cross-sector collaboration between North Carolina leaders in education, business, and government. In pursuit of their goal to have 2 million North Carolinians have a post-secondary degree or credential, they have produced County-level profiles, available as PDFs via the https://dashboard.myfuturenc.org website.


These profiles include many data elements, including county demographics; educational performance indicators; and labor market outcomes. In addition to the indicators on the published profile, this data file contains county indicators that align with data reported in the state attainment dashboard (where available), as well as contextual information that has been included based on conversations with county leaders. This data file also contains data for multiple years for many indicators and provides details by demographic subgroups where available.


Researchers from Carolina Demography, located within the Carolina Population Center at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, identified the best source of data for each indicator by consulting with experts from the UNC System, the NC Community College System, North Carolina Independent Colleges and Universities, the NC Department of Public Instruction, the NC Department of Commerce, and the NC
Department of Health and Human Services.


Carolina Demography will provide updated data for each indicator as it becomes available.

See all three of Isothermal RPO’s county profiles below.

McDowell

Polk

Rutherford

Shared by IRPO–NC FIRST Commission Launches CRAFTS Tool

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The NC FIRST Commission is seeking public involvement as it works to finalize future revenue and investment recommendations to the Board of Transportation.

The Commission recently launched CRAFTS, a web tool that lets people explore revenue and finance solutions to modernize the state’s transportation network.  The Commission wants the public to check out the web tool and then submit their suggestions online. Share your thoughts by Dec. 14.

Shared by IRPO–Thanksgiving Travel

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NCDOT is suspending most construction activity along its major highways to keep lanes open for those traveling for Thanksgiving.

The work along interstates, as well as U.S. and key N.C. routes is expected to shut down from the morning of Nov. 24 through the evening of Nov. 30. There are some exceptions where construction conditions make it unsafe to open all lanes. This includes some locations where lanes are under construction or where a bridge is being replaced. Work that does not impact travel lanes can continue for some projects.

Before you hit the road, go to driveNC.gov for the most up-to-date traffic information. 

Thanksgiving Click It or Ticket Campaign

The annual Thanksgiving Click It or Ticket campaign will be in place next week. Law enforcement will be stepping up enforcement of speeding, drunk driving and, of course, seat belt laws in all 100 counties. Violators of North Carolina’s seat belt law are fined $179; if a passenger under 15 is not properly restrained there’s a $263 fine.