Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the Airport Operations Economy topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
Sky Harbor says 47,000 on‑campus jobs, airport funded by users not taxes
Summary
Phoenix Sky Harbor Airport reported 47,000 people work on the airport campus and officials said the airport is self‑supporting through parking, concessions and airline fees, not general tax revenues.
Chad Makowski, the City of Phoenix aviation director, said Sky Harbor Airport supports more than 47,000 employees on its campus and that the city directly employs about 950 airport staff.
"Our latest economic impact statement identified that we have over 47,000 employees working on our airport campus," Makowski said. "We're like the largest employer, or largest employer, I should say, in the entire state of Arizona." He added the city is directly responsible for roughly 950 employees who handle landlord tasks — runways, terminals, roadways and maintenance — while airlines, concessions, ground transportation and federal agencies employ the remainder.
Makowski said the airport is financially self‑sustaining. "We use no local taxpayer dollars at the airport," he said. "We're a 100% self sustaining. We're what's called an enterprise fund department." He described revenue sources that fund operations and reinvestment: parking, concessions, rental cars, and negotiated airline fees. "If you park at the airport that parking revenue comes to the airport... and that gets reinvested back into the airport, so we're not using general tax fund revenues for the airport," Makowski said.
Operational scale figures given in the interview: Sky Harbor exceeded 50 million annual passengers in 2024, with Makowski citing a 2024 total of 52,300,000 passengers; the airport records roughly 500,000 takeoffs and landings annually and operates three runways. Makowski said these volumes drive the need for careful planning and partnerships with airlines and public safety agencies such as TSA, the FAA, Phoenix Police and Phoenix Fire.
On passenger experience and access, Makowski described multimodal options including the SkyTrain, which runs frequently and is part of an effort to decongest Sky Harbor Boulevard, and a mix of surface and covered parking. On concessions, he said the airport offers more than 120 food and retail concepts and that developing a new restaurant is expensive: "Cost per square foot, it's close to a thousand dollars a square foot to develop out a brand new restaurant at the airport." He said the city conducts local business outreach when negotiating concessions and seeks local brands.
Discussion only: The remarks summarize current economic impact and operational approach; no new budget ordinance or council vote was presented in the interview.
