Study: Phoenix-Mesa Gateway pumps $1.3B into Arizona economy
Sep 16, 2013, 1:21 PM | Updated: 1:22 pm
PHOENIX — Phoenix-Mesa Gateway pumped over $1.3 billion into Arizona’s economy in fiscal year 2013, a study said.
“Gateway Airport has grown from being an East Valley economic engine to an asset for the entire state of Arizona,” City of Mesa Mayor and Phoenix-Mesa Gateway Airport Authority Director Scott Smith said in a press release.
Smith noted that visitor spending of those who fly through Mesa-Gateway is up 433 percent. The study said that 60 percent of the airport’s 1.4 million passengers were visitors — double that of 2010 — and they spent about $767 million in 2013. Additional spending pushed the airport to a grand total of $1,311,232,000.
The airport employs 2,042 people, but the additional revenue the airport generates supports more than 10,000 jobs in Arizona.
“Our area was greatly impacted by the Great Recession, and yet we saw an increase of 79 percent in economic activity surrounding the airport and a 150 percent increase in employment numbers for businesses in that area,” Queen Creek Mayor and Airport Authority Vice Chairman Gail Barney said in a press release. “That’s impressive.”
