NCDOT News: Ellis Airport Contributes Over 370 Jobs to the Economy of Jacksonville and Onslow County

by NCDOT 12/07/2017

Albert J. Ellis Airport Breaks Ground on New Control Tower

JACKSONVILLE – Thanks in part to $2.4 million in grants awarded by the N.C. Department of Transportation’s Division of Aviation, Albert J. Ellis Airport in Richlands is finally getting its own air traffic control tower (ATC).

Serving over 300,000 passengers per year, Ellis Airport is one of the busiest commercial airports in the United States without its own ATC tower.

The tower is estimated to be completed by the end of 2018 at a total cost of $4.5 million.

Ellis Airport contributes over $237 million and 370 jobs to the economy of Jacksonville and Onslow County, as well as $4.9 million in state and local tax dollars.

Recent estimates put the economic impact of North Carolina’s entire airport system at more than $31 billion a year. Airports support more than 123,000 jobs across the state, and return more than $910 million annually to state and local governments in taxes.

“Our airports return more than $9 in state and local tax revenues for every $1 the state invests,” says Division of Aviation Airport Development Manager Jon Arnold, “and major projects like this new ATC tower will benefit the region for decades to come.”

The state money comes from the State Commercial Airports Fund.  It was administered in two separate grants, dated May 11, 2016 and November 9, 2017.