Transportation and Warehousing ·NAICS 481

NAICS 481 · IRS SOI 2023 · Census CBP

Air Transportation - Industry Benchmarks

118 SBA loans on record, $119M in volume, for NAICS 481.

Compiled by PlainBizBench Editorial, Industry Data Editorial Team

-0.6%
Net margin: N/A
Workers employed: N/A
Avg payroll / employee: $119M
SBA lending, FY20–26

Data updated July 2026

The verdict · NAICS 481

Air Transportation runs a -0.6% pre-tax net margin - significantly below average, typical of high-volume, low-margin sectors - across 5K establishments employing N/A workers.

-0.6%
Pre-tax net margin (IRS SOI): N/A
Workers employed (Census CBP): N/A
Avg payroll / employee: $119M
SBA lending, FY20–26

Benchmarking Insights for Air Transportation

Air Transportation sits inside Transportation and Warehousing at a -0.6% net margin (significantly below average, typical of high-volume, low-margin sectors), $186.9B in aggregate receipts across 6,783 returns, averaging $27.6B per establishment.

4,745 establishments employ N/A workers. Washington leads employment, followed by Ohio and Utah.

Profit Margin

-0.6%

Net income ÷ total receipts (IRS SOI)

Total Receipts

$186.9B

Annual revenue (IRS SOI)

Net Income

$-1169434000

Pre-tax net income

Employment

N/A

Total employees (Census CBP)

Avg Payroll / Employee

N/A

Annual compensation

Establishments

4,745

Business locations

Release-over-release change

What changed from Census CBP 2022 to 2023

establishment count increased by 100. This comparison uses two published national Census County Business Patterns releases; suppressed fields are omitted rather than estimated.

Where each dollar of Air Transportation revenue goes

Receipts decomposition, IRS Statistics of Income 2023 aggregate for Air Transportation

Air Transportation margin vs national reference points

Air Transportation net margin 0.0%

Cross-industry median (5%)

p25/median/p75 = 3%/5%/8%

Business Structure Breakdown

How businesses in this industry are legally structured (IRS SOI)

C Corporation

6,783 returns 100%

Margin: -0.6% · Receipts: $186.9B

Financial Detail

Total Tax Returns Filed: 6,783
Avg Receipts per Business: $27.6B

Sub-Industries

Industry	Profit Margin	Employment	Avg Payroll/Emp
Nonscheduled Air Transportation NAICS 4812	N/A	72,236	$120,746/yr
Scheduled Air Transportation NAICS 4811	N/A	N/A	N/A

Top States by Employment

State	Employment	Establishments	Annual Payroll	Avg Payroll/Emp
Washington	16,190	121	$1.4B	$85,326/yr
Ohio	14,030	93	$1.7B	$120,437/yr
Utah	11,728	54	$1.1B	$93,978/yr
Massachusetts	11,631	90	$1.0B	$89,377/yr
Louisiana	2,714	73	N/A	N/A
Montana	1,239	67	$86.6M	$69,918/yr
Connecticut	1,235	24	N/A	N/A
Nebraska	959	23	$76.5M	$79,771/yr
New Mexico	795	25	$75.0M	$94,296/yr
Kansas	467	37	N/A	N/A

Showing top 10 of 51 states

SBA Lending Activity

SBA FY2020–2026

SBA Loans Approved

118

Total Loan Volume

$119M

Avg Loan Size

$1009K

Jobs Supported

1,697

Program Breakdown

7(a) 111 (94%)

504 7 (6%)

Top SBA Lender

The Huntington National Bank

12 loans in this industry

New Business Share

25.4% of borrowers were new/startup businesses

Annual Lending Trend (7 yrs)

2020

2021

2022

2023

2024

2025

2026

View SBA lending rankings →

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the average revenue for Air Transportation?

$186.9B in total annual receipts across all Air Transportation businesses. Average per business: $27.6B.

How profitable is Air Transportation?

-0.6% net profit margin, significantly below average, typical of high-volume, low-margin sectors.

How many businesses are in Air Transportation?

4,745 business establishments.

What is the average payroll per employee in Air Transportation?

Average payroll data for Air Transportation is not available in the current Census CBP dataset.

Which states have the most Air Transportation employment?

Washington leads with 16,190 workers. Ohio (14,030) and Utah (11,728) round out the top three.

How much SBA lending does Air Transportation receive?

Air Transportation businesses received 118 SBA loans totaling $119 million between FY2020 and FY2026. The average loan size was $1009K. These loans supported 1,697 jobs at origination. Most lending (94%) came through the SBA 7(a) program.

Comparable industry benchmarks

These links are calculated from the current national dataset. They are comparison paths, not recommendations or evidence that businesses operate alike.

Closest reported net margins

Same NAICS detail level, ordered by the smallest difference in reported IRS pre-tax margin.

Benchmarking Air Transportation

Net margin: -0.6% vs sector. Browse Transportation and Warehousing
4,745 establishments, N/A workers. Payroll benchmarks
118 SBA loans on record. SBA lending rankings

Disclaimer: Public IRS/Census data, not financial or tax advice. See our full disclaimer.

Sources: IRS Statistics of Income (SOI) Business Tax Statistics · Census Bureau County Business Patterns 2023

NAICS 481 · Data year: 2023

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, which released its 2023 County Business Patterns dataset in June 2025, PlainBizBench benchmarks 2,002 U.S. industries against Internal Revenue Service Statistics of Income data. See our methodology for the full compilation process.

Read our methodology - how this data is sourced, computed, and verified.

Source: U.S. Census Bureau, County Business Patterns / SUSB Industry employment scale, payroll, and firm-size benchmarks · 2023 Accessed 2026-07-06

Every figure on PlainBizBench is rendered directly from federal source data, no number is typed in by an editor. This page aggregates profit-margin, payroll, entity-type, and SBA-lending benchmarks for this industry, live from the dataset. See our editorial standards & corrections policy, the methodology behind these numbers, or report a data error.

Disclaimer: Public IRS/Census data, not financial or tax advice. See our full disclaimer.