Little Rock National Airport not only serves as one of the major front doors for our city and state, but is also a major economic generator.
About 3,500 people work at the airport or for aviation-related businesses and industries located on or adjacent to the field. The payroll is about $40 million per year.
Major businesses/industries include:
- Dassault-Falcon Jet. The Dassault-Falcon facility in Little Rock is the largest operated by the company. All of the corporate jet aircraft sold worldwide by Dassault-Falcon are finished in Little Rock.
- Raytheon Aircraft. Raytheon is another company involved in the completion of corporate jet aircraft, the Hawker.
- Southwest Airlines Reservation Center. More than 1,000 agents work in the center which handles reservations for Southwest. The Little Rock Center is one of the largest in the Southwest system.
- United Parcel Service. UPS operates a Boeing 757 into and out of Little Rock daily to transport freight which is then processed at a large sorting facility just east of the airport.
- There are numerous businesses on the airport which handle various functions for the airlines serving the airport, ranging from fueling to catering.
- Within the terminal itself, hundreds of people work for the airlines, rental car companies, food/beverage and merchandise concessionaire and for the Airport Commission itself.
- Pulaski Technical College operates a training center adjacent to the Arkansas Aerospace Education Center. One of the major purposes of the center is to ensure there is a well-trained labor pool for the various aviation-related businesses at the airport, including Dassault-Falcon and Raytheon. Pulaski Technical not only trains workers at their facility, but will also bring courses to an employer's facility. A well-trained workforce is key to the success of the existing industries and a major asset in recruiting other aviation-related businesses and industries.
The direct economic benefit of all of this activity has been estimated at $263 million annually.
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