Economic Outlook

Since the dawn of civilization, human activity has been concentrated in areas with access to transportation infrastructure. Today, corporate and other private air travel is critical to business transactions worldwide and to the efficient functioning of many aspects of the economy. Airports that can facilitate such mobility are valuable assets to their communities, enhancing the competitiveness for locations, creating jobs, producing tax revenue, and stimulating economic development.

The Central Texas Airport (CTA) will be a reliever airport located in Bastrop County within minutes of Austin. CTA would primarily serve private jets and aircraft-related businesses. The facility and associated development are planned to employ the latest green building methods.

CTA will offer aircraft maintenance, management, leasing, sales, repair, inspection, certification businesses, and support services for general aviation. These services are currently lacking for general aviation in the area.

It will also serve expanding demand for new development, including revenue producing green initiatives, and provide an ideal location for firms requiring onsite access to runways and other aspects of aviation operations.

CTA’s green aspects open the door to attracting emerging green industries based on technological breakthroughs and innovation, thus helping the Austin area continue its role as a pioneer in clean energy and green initiatives and capture a sizable stake in an emerging industry.

The Austin area has performed well for a number of years, even remaining relatively stable during the current national economic downturn, and the Austin area is expected to be among the leaders during the economic recovery.

  • The Perryman Group’s latest forecast indicates that the Austin-Round Rock MSA will gain about 75,400 new wage and salary jobs from 2008 to 2013, while output (real gross area product) expands from $77.83 billion in 2008 to $95.72 billion in 2013.
  • Once the Austin area economy begins to gain momentum, air travel and aviation needs are likely to recover rapidly.
  • The growing economy and population of the Austin area, particularly in technology and high-value service sectors, will lead to increasing needs for a reliever airport such as CTA.

The Perryman Group measured the likely economic effects stemming from the construction and development of the proposed reliever airport and related facilities, as well as the associated Green Corporate Centers.

  • The total effect of construction of the airport and related facilities would lead to an additional $627 million in total spending, $298 million in output, and 3,818 person-years of employment in the state.
  • The operations of the airport and related services generate ongoing positive economic effects at maturity including $878 million in annual total spending, $398 million in output each year, and 4,730 jobs. Activity would be concentrated in the immediate area, with spillover effects to the region and beyond. Over a typical five-year period, the airport contributes over $4 billion in cumulative outlays and almost $2 billion in gross product.
  • Construction associated with a representative green development would lead to gains of almost $3.8 billion in total spending, $1.8 billion in output, and 23,007 person-years of employment.
  • Ongoing operations of the development (at maturity) would lead to annual gains of $8.3 billion in total spending, $4.1 billion in output, and 43,414 jobs.

This ongoing economic activity associated with the airport would, in turn, lead to gains in direct and indirect tax receipts to local governments and the State.

  • TPG measured the annual fiscal effect of ongoing operations of the airport and related services (at maturity) to include $85.1 million to local taxing entities and almost $18.6 million to the State.
  • The fiscal impact of this green development would be sizable, with local entities likely to see gains in tax receipts each year of some $86.9 million ($198.4 million to the State).

Over the past six months, September 2009 - March 2010, Texas created more new jobs than any other state based on the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Central Texas Airport & Eco-Merge Green Corporate Centers at maturity will create over 43.414 jobs which is the equivalent of 8 months of job creation by the State of Texas as a whole. The following table illustrates the job gains and losses for all 50 states over a 6 month period.