Employment
245,625
Total employees (Census CBP)
Transportation and Warehousing ·NAICS 4881
NAICS 4881 · IRS SOI (C corp) · Census CBP 2023
Support Activities for Air Transportation - Industry Benchmarks
$53,140/yr average annual pay, with 220 SBA loans on record for NAICS 4881.
- 7K
- Establishments
- 246K
- Workers employed
- $53,140/yr
- Avg payroll / employee
- $222M
- SBA lending, FY20–26
Data updated August 2026
The verdict · NAICS 4881
Texas leads Support Activities for Air Transportation activity nationally, across 7K establishments employing 246K workers. IRS SOI doesn't publish margin data at this NAICS level.
- 7K
- Business establishments (Census)
- 246K
- Workers employed (Census CBP)
- $53,140/yr
- Avg payroll / employee
- $222M
- SBA lending, FY20–26
Use Support Activities for Air Transportation's NAICS benchmark as a comparison point, not a forecast for one business.
Support Activities for 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 (C corporation headline) and Census County Business Patterns 2023
Benchmarking Insights for Support Activities for Air Transportation
Support Activities for Air Transportation sits inside Transportation and Warehousing.
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.
Support Activities for Air Transportation sits in the 57th percentile for employment among 4-digit NAICS industries with reported data.
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.
Subscribe to this industry's release updates (RSS)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 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.
Nationwide industries with similar benchmark drivers
Two IRS/Census peer sets for Support Activities for Air Transportation, both at NAICS level 4 and excluding this code so the neighborhoods are not self-links.
According to Census County Business Patterns 2023, Support Activities for Air Transportation ranks #111 of 259 U.S. industries at the 4-digit NAICS level by total employment.
Similar workforce scale
Nearest peer industries by ABS(Census employment) (245,625 here).
Read with this industry: Industry employment trends · Transportation and Warehousing · 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 · CBP 2023 · IRS SOI
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.