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NC Airports Rake in Over $20 Billion for NC Economy

The Christmas and New Year holiday travel season means big business for the nation’s airports.  A report by N-C State and the Institute for Transportation Research and Education shows just how big aviation is in this state. 

The economic impact of North Carolina’s nine commercial service airports is more than 20-billion dollars.  A lot of the growth has come in the last few years after major construction projects at Raleigh-Durham and Charlotte Douglas International Airports.  Bobby Walston is Deputy Director of Airports for the Division of Aviation in the state Department of Transportation.

Bobby Walston:  "It certainly lets us know that what we know that aviation is very important to our state.   It means jobs, and it certainly means significant contribution by way of our economy, to our state’s economy."

There are a total of 72 publicly-owned airports in the state supporting close to 109-thousand full and part-time jobs.

Leoneda Inge is the co-host of WUNC's "Due South." Leoneda has been a radio journalist for more than 30 years, spending most of her career at WUNC as the Race and Southern Culture reporter. Leoneda’s work includes stories of race, slavery, memory and monuments. She has won "Gracie" awards, an Alfred I. duPont Award and several awards from the Radio, Television, Digital News Association (RTDNA). In 2017, Leoneda was named "Journalist of Distinction" by the National Association of Black Journalists.
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