Employment
245,625
Total employees (Census CBP)
Transportation and Warehousing ·NAICS 4881
NAICS 4881 · IRS SOI 2023 · Census CBP
Support Activities for Air Transportation - Industry Benchmarks
$53,140/yr average annual pay, with 220 SBA loans on record for NAICS 4881.
- 6.0%
- Transportation and Warehousing sector margin
- 246K
- Workers employed
- $53,140/yr
- Avg payroll / employee
- $222M
- SBA lending, FY20–26
Data updated July 2026
The verdict · NAICS 4881
Texas leads Support Activities for Air Transportation activity nationally. IRS SOI doesn't publish margin data at this NAICS level, but the broader Transportation and Warehousing sector runs a 6.0% net margin.
- 6.0%
- Transportation and Warehousing sector margin (IRS SOI)
- 246K
- Workers employed (Census CBP)
- $53,140/yr
- Avg payroll / employee
- $222M
- SBA lending, FY20–26
Benchmarking Insights for Support Activities for Air Transportation
Support Activities for Air Transportation sits inside Transportation and Warehousing, a sector that runs a 6.0% net margin overall.
6,822 establishments employ 245,625 workers (36.0/location) at $53,140/yr average annual pay. Texas leads employment, followed by Florida and California.
Avg Payroll / Employee
$53,140/yr
Annual compensation
Establishments
6,822
Business locations
Release-over-release change
What changed from Census CBP 2022 to 2023
Employment increased by 36,290; establishment count increased by 316. This comparison uses two published national Census County Business Patterns releases; suppressed fields are omitted rather than estimated.
Workforce scale
Financial Detail
- Annual Payroll (Total)
- $13.1B
- Avg Employees per Establishment
- 36.0
Sub-Industries
| Industry | Profit Margin |
|---|---|
| Airport Operations NAICS 48811 | N/A |
| Other Support Activities for Air Transportation NAICS 48819 | N/A |
Top States by Employment
| State | Employment |
|---|---|
| Texas | 38,452 |
| Florida | 34,551 |
| California | 29,709 |
| New York | 12,502 |
| Washington | 6,864 |
| Georgia | 6,698 |
| New Jersey | 6,485 |
| Virginia | 6,041 |
| Arizona | 5,937 |
| Michigan | 5,682 |
Showing top 10 of 51 states
SBA Lending Activity
SBA FY2020–2026SBA Loans Approved
220
Total Loan Volume
$222M
Avg Loan Size
$1011K
Jobs Supported
4,275
Program Breakdown
7(a) 185 (84%)
504 35 (16%)
Top SBA Lender
The Huntington National Bank
12 loans in this industry
New Business Share
24.5% of borrowers were new/startup businesses
Annual Lending Trend (7 yrs)
2020 22
2021 43
2022 34
2023 26
2024 35
2025 48
2026 12
Frequently Asked Questions
How profitable is Support Activities for Air Transportation?
IRS SOI doesn't publish margin data at the NAICS 4881 level. Texas leads this industry nationally. The broader Transportation and Warehousing sector runs a 6.0% net margin (IRS SOI 2023).
How many businesses are in Support Activities for Air Transportation?
6,822 business establishments. Together they employ 245,625 workers.
What is the average payroll per employee in Support Activities for Air Transportation?
$53,140/yr average annual pay per employee. Businesses average 36.0 employees per establishment.
Which states have the most Support Activities for Air Transportation employment?
Texas leads with 38,452 workers. Florida (34,551) and California (29,709) round out the top three.
How much SBA lending does Support Activities for Air Transportation receive?
Support Activities for Air Transportation businesses received 220 SBA loans totaling $222 million between FY2020 and FY2026. The average loan size was $1011K. These loans supported 4,275 jobs at origination. Most lending (84%) 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.
How this ranks: Its Census employment total exceeds 57% of that same 259-industry cohort. Calculated by ranking this industry's reported value against every other industry at the same NAICS digit-level, not the whole dataset: comparing a 6-digit detail industry to a 2-digit sector would mix incompatible scales.
Closest workforce scale
Same NAICS detail level, ordered by the smallest difference in reported Census employment.
Benchmarking Support Activities for Air Transportation
- No margin data, check the parent industry. Browse Transportation and Warehousing
- 6,822 establishments, 245,625 workers. Payroll benchmarks
- 220 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 4881 · 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
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.