Transportation and Warehousing ·NAICS 481

NAICS 481 · IRS SOI 2013 (C corp) · Census CBP 2023

Air Transportation - Industry Benchmarks

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

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

Data updated August 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

Use Air Transportation's NAICS benchmark as a comparison point, not a forecast for one business.

Air Transportation is reported here with financial measures from IRS Statistics of Income and workforce measures from Census County Business Patterns. The page keeps those source systems distinct, shows unavailable fields rather than estimating them, and links the underlying industry context so readers can compare the same NAICS activity before interpreting a margin or payroll figure.

Source: IRS SOI 2013 (C corporation headline) and Census County Business Patterns 2023

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.

Subscribe to this industry's release updates (RSS)

Where each dollar of Air Transportation revenue goes

Air Transportation margin vs national reference points

Air Transportation net margin 0.0%
Cross-industry median (5%)

p25/median/p75 = 3%/5%/7%

Business Structure Breakdown

Per-entity IRS SOI tables at their own vintages, shares only when every row shares one year (never mix 2013/2017/2022 populations).

C Corporation SOI 2013
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
Nonscheduled Air Transportation

NAICS 4812

 N/A
Scheduled Air Transportation

NAICS 4811

 N/A

Top States by Employment

State Employment
Washington 16,190
Ohio 14,030
Utah 11,728
Massachusetts 11,631
Louisiana 2,714
Montana 1,239
Connecticut 1,235
Nebraska 959
New Mexico 795
Kansas 467

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
16
2021
19
2022
23
2023
18
2024
17
2025
24
2026
1

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.

According to IRS SOI 2013 IRS Statistics of Income, its reported pre-tax net margin ranks #74 of 75 at that same detail level.

Closest reported net margins

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

Benchmarking Air Transportation

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 · CBP 2023 · IRS SOI 2013

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

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.