The Emergence of Piedmont Triad International Airport as an Advanced Aerospace Manufacturing Cluster

Piedmont Triad International Airport's remarkable emergence as a national advanced aerospace manufacturing cluster the past 11 years serves as a symbolic bridge between economic eras in the Triad.

Without the foresight and forward thinking to construct an actual bridge on the Greensboro airport campus, the ability to attract Boom Supersonic, JetZero and Marshall Aerospace USA — with a combined promise of about 17,000 jobs and $5.3 billion in capital investment — would not be possible.

That 280-foot bridge, which debuted in 2018 at a cost of $20 million, has served two primary purposes.

The first was to provide Piedmont Triad International Airport with a more streamlined traffic entrance and exit from its campus via Bryan Boulevard toward U.S. 68 and Interstate 73.

The second was to make accessible — and viable — approximately 650 acres of more than 1,000 acres of undeveloped land on the airport campus.

The bridge connects the airport’s western runway to those acres. It gave Piedmont Triad International Airport, and local and state economic officials a tantalizing recruitment marketing pitch — direct access to a taxiway and runway.

The bridge is capable of handling a jumbo jet as cars pass below.

Senate leader Phil Berger, R- Rockingham, has a segment of Guilford County in his district.

During Thursday's announcement of JetZero's commitment to Greensboro, including a pledge of 14,560 jobs and $4.7 billion investment, Berger shared his memories of those pivotal conversations with the Piedmont Triad Airport Authority in 2014 about the airport's future.

"Their idea for PTI was for it to be a driver of economic development and job growth in the Triad," Berger said.

Berger said those conversations convinced him of the importance of the bridge.

"Not just any bridge, but one that would open up the airport and the surrounding land to be available for growth and expansion," Berger said.

"All they need was money from the state to build that bridge. We found the money for that bridge that laid the groundwork for what we're doing here today andthe growth we've seen at this airport."

A close follower of airport's transition toward advanced aviation manufacturing has been Keith Debbage, a professor emeritus in the Department of Geography, Environment and Sustainability at UNC Greensboro.

"The guts and fortitude needed to pull all this off cannot be underestimated because it has allowed the Triad to build an entirely, new and hugely innovative industry cluster that is successfully allowing us to differentiate from Charlotte and Raleigh," Debbage said.

"Of course, the big challenge now is to further build and nurture a skilled workforce focused on advanced manufacturing and logistics, although our local community colleges and universities have been up to the task so far."

How it happened

The airport's annual budget comes from landing fees, not local taxes. Many of its capital projects are funded either through federal or state assistance and bond issues.

Even before construction of the bridge began, the Piedmont Triad Airport Authority authorized executive director Kevin Baker to begin purchasing hundreds of acres, including a golf course, for future development.

Those land acquisitions are continuing as opportunities arise, Baker said.

“We want to be prepared, as we are,” Baker said in a 2017 article in the News & Record.

“If you wait until a project comes along, you’ve just added two years," Baker said then. "You can't tell a company that their land could be available in two years, but the bridge to the land may take three years."

Baker and the airport's board of directors were not leery of dreaming big. The group focused on three primary industry sectors:

* Firms that repair and overhaul airplanes;

* Companies that build airplanes; and

* Businesses that make major components for aircraft.

“A site selection consultant sat in this room, and she said this could well be the best aerospace site in the country," Baker said in the 2017 article.

Eight years later, JetZero, along with Boom Supersonic, FedEx, HAECO, Honda Aircraft Co. and Marshall Aerospace USA, have the potential to make the airport campus the epicenter of U.S. advanced aviation manufacturing with more than 20,000 jobs in existence or pledged from just those companies.

Graham Bennett, the airport authority's chairman, said the JetZero commitment "is more than an economic development milestone."

He added, "It's a statement that North Carolina is ready to lead the next generation of global aviation.”

Tom O'Leary, chief executive and co-founder of JetZero, said the Greensboro airport and North Carolina "offer the ideal combination of talent, infrastructure and forward-thinking leadership to support our mission to reshape aviation."

“This facility is a critical milestone in bringing our all-wing Z4 to market."

Pivotal talk

The pivotal piece for Baker and the authority, then led by the late Henry Isaacson, was to convince the Triad's legislative delegation to provide state funding to construct the bridge, and for the N.C. Transportation Department to include the bridge in the Bryan Boulevard/ I-73 construction schedules.

Berger said the successful recruitment of Boom Supersonic, JetZero, Marshall Aerospace USA and Toyota Battery Manufacturing NC "makes it imperative that we redouble our efforts to keep North Carolina the best state in the nation in which to live, to work, to raise a family and, yes, to retire."

Brent Christensen, president and chief executive of Greensboro Chamber of Commerce, stressed that attracting projects such as JetZero and Boom Supersonic "don’t happen by accident."

"They happen because of years of preparation, investments and collaboration. We’re proud to see that work paying off, and we look forward to supporting JetZero as they help shape the future of sustainable aviation."

Debbage said that future of airport growth will depend in part on "developing updated, broad-based airport area plans with the city of Greensboro and Guilford County."

"Those plans will need the support of zoning policies that hold back parcels of land outside the airport authority land for firms capable of supporting airport operations, while at the same time protecting pre-existing residential neighborhoods."

FedEx's role

The evolution of PTI as an aviation hub beyond passenger airline service began in 1998 with the successful recruitment of the FedEx East Coast sorting hub project.

The FedEx hub has served as the catalyst in proving the Piedmont Triad International Airport campus could be a viable economic-development engine beyond just passenger service — even though it has barely reached at its peak two-thirds of its 1,500-employee pledge from 1998.

Henry Isaacson was quoted in a 2014 article in the Winston-Salem Journal about his retirement that his top airport authority accomplishment “had to do with changing our mission statement to include economic development as a major component of that statement.”

Compare and contrast

The bridge also has served as a physical remainder that Piedmont Triad International remains a moderately successful commercial passenger airport.

The airport terminal is modern and spacious but is rarely crowded. Security lines are relatively quick.

On Thursday afternoon, as the JetZero announcement attracted more than 300 attendees, a trickle of passengers walked by on their way to checking in for their flights.

The airport's most recent low-fare carrier launched on June 6. That's when Breeze Airways debuted limited low-fare passenger airline services.

Breeze offers Monday and Friday flights to the Hartford, Connecticut and Orlando, Florida markets — both on a late afternoon and evening schedule.

Breeze plans to fly from Greensboro to Orlando year-round, while Hartford is a seasonal service. One-way fares are as low at $49 before fees.

"The irony is that while the goal has always been to develop PTI as an aerotropolis megasite, the recent economic successes will go a long way to stimulating passenger service as well," Debbage said.

"Since many of the white-collar executives that will be managing companies, like HondaJet, HAECO, FedEx, Boom Supersonic and JetZero, are the same sorts of folks that will be looking for more passenger flights in and out of PTI."

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