Employment
142,448
Total employees (Census CBP)
Transportation and Warehousing ·NAICS 48811
NAICS 48811 · IRS SOI 2023 · Census CBP
Airport Operations - Industry Benchmarks
$38,856/yr average annual pay, with 57 SBA loans on record for NAICS 48811.
- 6.0%
- Transportation and Warehousing sector margin
- 142K
- Workers employed
- $38,856/yr
- Avg payroll / employee
- $82M
- SBA lending, FY20–26
Data updated July 2026
The verdict · NAICS 48811
California leads Airport Operations 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)
- 142K
- Workers employed (Census CBP)
- $38,856/yr
- Avg payroll / employee
- $82M
- SBA lending, FY20–26
Benchmarking Insights for Airport Operations
Airport Operations sits inside Transportation and Warehousing, a sector that runs a 6.0% net margin overall.
2,585 establishments employ 142,448 workers (55.1/location) at $38,856/yr average annual pay. California leads employment, followed by Florida and New York.
Avg Payroll / Employee
$38,856/yr
Annual compensation
Establishments
2,585
Business locations
Release-over-release change
What changed from Census CBP 2022 to 2023
Employment increased by 24,863; establishment count increased by 175. 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)
- $5.5B
- Avg Employees per Establishment
- 55.1
Sub-Industries
| Industry | Profit Margin |
|---|---|
| Air Traffic Control NAICS 488111 | N/A |
| Other Airport Operations NAICS 488119 | N/A |
Top States by Employment
| State | Employment |
|---|---|
| California | 21,430 |
| Florida | 19,090 |
| New York | 9,384 |
| Virginia | 5,585 |
| New Jersey | 4,737 |
| Washington | 4,457 |
| Georgia | 3,986 |
| Nevada | 2,785 |
| Massachusetts | 2,680 |
| Michigan | 2,480 |
Showing top 10 of 51 states
SBA Lending Activity
SBA FY2020–2026SBA Loans Approved
57
Total Loan Volume
$82M
Avg Loan Size
$1430K
Jobs Supported
1,306
Program Breakdown
7(a) 44 (77%)
504 13 (23%)
Top SBA Lender
Florida Business Development C
5 loans in this industry
New Business Share
36.8% of borrowers were new/startup businesses
Annual Lending Trend (7 yrs)
2020 4
2021 14
2022 11
2023 6
2024 7
2025 14
2026 1
Frequently Asked Questions
How profitable is Airport Operations?
IRS SOI doesn't publish margin data at the NAICS 48811 level. California leads this industry nationally. The broader Transportation and Warehousing sector runs a 6.0% net margin (IRS SOI 2023).
How many businesses are in Airport Operations?
2,585 business establishments. Together they employ 142,448 workers.
What is the average payroll per employee in Airport Operations?
$38,856/yr average annual pay per employee. Businesses average 55.1 employees per establishment.
Which states have the most Airport Operations employment?
California leads with 21,430 workers. Florida (19,090) and New York (9,384) round out the top three.
How much SBA lending does Airport Operations receive?
Airport Operations businesses received 57 SBA loans totaling $82 million between FY2020 and FY2026. The average loan size was $1430K. These loans supported 1,306 jobs at origination. Most lending (77%) 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 70% of that same 551-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.
- Television Broadcasting 142,225
- Educational Support Services 141,678
- Other Motor Vehicle Parts Manufacturing 143,867
Benchmarking Airport Operations
- No margin data, check the parent industry. Browse Transportation and Warehousing
- 2,585 establishments, 142,448 workers. Payroll benchmarks
- 57 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 48811 · 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.