ECONOMIC IMPACT

Strategically located at the crossroads of three of the Philadelphia area’s major highways, Wings Field is at the center of the region’s business. It is the closest airport to Philadelphia’s biotech/hi-tech corridor, the Main Line, and Chestnut Hill. It is a transportation hub that helps attract and retain businesses and jobs in the area. It is also a provider of services to local business people and consumers. Within a ten mile radius of the airport are:

• 22,000 businesses, including 91 firms with more than 500 employees
• Labor force of over 400,000 employees
• Annual payroll of more than $14 billion
• 10 multinational companies have key locations – Merck, Unisys, Aetna, GlaxoSmithKline, Wyeth, Lockheed Martin, Exelon, Prudential Financial, IMS Health, Ortho-McNeil
• 1,390 active pilots and 563 aircraft owners
• Interstate highways – Pennsylvania Turnpike, Northeast Extension of the Turnpike, Blue Route (I476), Schuylkill Expressway (I76), US202, PA309
• Within 2 miles of Wings are more than 40 office complexes and industrial parks

As one of Whitpain Township’s oldest continuously operating businesses, Wings Field is headquarters for 10 aviation-related businesses with more than 60 employees.

The airport itself has a staff of 20 skilled workers, produces an annual payroll of $500,000, generates $2-million a year in revenue, and pays nearly $250,000 a year in taxes.

The airport serves a high number of business and corporate users. Merck, Unisys, Aetna, and Wyeth utilize the airport via helicopters. Wings is also the base for medevac helicopters operated by the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania and Temple University, and for Angel Flight East whose pilots use their aircraft at their own expense to fly patients at no charge to specialized medical centers throughout the east coast. Local and visiting businesses depend on the airport’s air taxi, car rental, charter and fuel services. Many local companies have customers and suppliers who fly in to visit them via Wings Field. The airport also provides a gateway for out-of-towners who visit attractions throughout the airport’s market area.

Wings Field also supports a large segment of personal flying by general aviation aircraft. The airport plays an active role in pilot training through its flight school, one of the oldest and largest in the area.

Aviation is a major industry in Pennsylvania. On a statewide basis, the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania said that in 2000 288,700 Pennsylvanians owed their jobs directly or indirectly to aviation. These employees represented more than 5% of all jobs in the Commonwealth. Aviation businesses represented 4% of the Pennsylvania Gross State Product.

Locally, in 1999 the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania estimated that total output from all on-airport tenants and general aviation visitors to Wings was approximately $6.7 million; total full-time employment, including all secondary impacts, was estimated at 121 persons, with a total annual payroll of approximately $4-million.

According to a Commonwealth of Pennsylvania survey, when major businesses were asked to rank the top reasons why they choose to locate where they do, convenient access to a scheduled service airport was ranked fifth while access to a general aviation airport – like Wings Field – was ranked tenth.