How many people does it take to run an airport?
About 1.2 million people work at 485 commercial airports in various roles
This isn’t a “… change a lightbulb” joke. USA TODAY was curious about what it takes to operate airports, which are often referred to as “cities within cities.”
According to a recent economic impact study conducted for Airports Council International-North America, about 1.2 million people work at 485 commercial airports in the United States. Some employees work directly for an airport operator. Others are employed by concessionaires, government agencies and entities doing business at airports.
For example, 63,000 people work at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport, making the world’s busiest airport the largest employer in Georgia. That count includes airline, ground transportation, concessionaire, security, federal government, city and airport tenant employees.
On duty are two art department coordinators, a full-time wildlife biologist, engineers for the airport’s Plane Train and Sky Train and a mobile medical response team that includes EMTs who jump on bicycles to cut down on the time it takes to respond to a medical emergency.
Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport boasts its own police, fire protection and emergency medical units and a daily workforce of over 60,000 people.
At Los Angeles International Airport, the Badging Office has issued badges for 50,000 airport workers, reports LAX public relations director Nancy Castles.
“These workers are distributed over three work shifts, since we’re a 24/7 operation,” said Castles, and that count doesn’t include workers for the courtesy vehicles for airport-area hotels, rental car companies and private parking lots; nor the drivers of public transportation such as taxis, door-to-door shuttle vans, long-distance buses, etc., “which would be a few thousand more.”
While LAX airport police decline to share a specific number, the airport claims to have the highest number of working police canines — dogs that handle explosivedetection and crime — at any U.S. airport. “This number does not include federal law-enforcement canines belonging to Customs & Border Protection, U.S. Agriculture’s ‘beagle brigade’ and TSA,” said Castles.
Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport’s active badge count tops 41,000, which includes chaplains, doctors, massage specialists, wine bar pianists and cobblers.
San Antonio International Airport has about 5,000 vetted and badged employees, said airport spokeswoman Evelynn Bailey. Included in that count are employees who make sure the airport’s 1,000 fire extinguishers are “present, accounted for and maintained,” and a highly organized employee who issues and keeps track of the keys for the 4,000 doors on airport property.
The 3,986 badged employees at Austin Bergstrom International Airport include an art coordinator, a music coordinator for the airport’s 21 weekly live concerts, the meat cutter at the post-security Salt Lick BBQ (who must work with a knife TSA requires be chained to the counter) and, soon, trainers at the airport’s pet hotel, scheduled to open this fall.