MCKINNEY, Texas — This story originally appeared in the Dallas Business Journal, a WFAA news partner.
Commercial service out of McKinney National Airport would create thousands of jobs and potentially generate more than $1 billion dollars of economic impact for the city by 2040, according to a recently completed study.
A committee of city and regional leaders responsible continues to explore the possibility of calling for a bond election so the city can build a $300 million commercial terminal at the airport, which currently offers general and corporate aviation services. The airport would provide an alternative to Dallas Fort Worth International and Dallas Love Field. In addition to McKinney, it would serve other fast-growing communities to the north of Dallas including Plano and Frisco.
As part of the bond committee's deliberations, the city and Sky Synergy, an aviation consulting firm assisting with the project, hired Vancouver-based InterVISTAS Consulting to perform an economic impact study.
The study found that the airport would create 1,040 direct jobs in 2026 when the commercial terminal would potentially open. Commercial operations would support more than 3,200 total jobs. Total wages would amount to $265 million. Overall, the airport would generate $850 million in economic activity and $115 million in tax revenue, including about $5 million for McKinney.
In a more conservative model, which assumes McKinney won't have a crew base or other large employee pools associated with the airlines, the total economic impact would be $615 million. The study estimates the airport would create 2,780 jobs in the less aggressive scenario providing $207 million in total wages. Tax revenue would total $77 million, including an estimated $4 million for McKinney.
Both scenarios assume 533,000 enplanements when the commercial terminal opens.
If McKinney moves forward with the project, city officials expect the airport's commercial terminal to debut with four gates offering four to 20 flights a day. Eventually, the airport would have 16 gates and be able to offer as many as 40 daily departures by 2040.
According to the study, the total economic impact of the airport could grow to $840 million by 2040 in the conservative scenario. With more aggressive assumptions, the airport's economic impact would exceed $1.16 billion. The study forecasts the airport having 820,000 enplanements in 2040.
McKinney does not have any agreements in place with any of the airlines. Assistant City Manager Barry Shelton said a range of carriers have expressed interest, which served as the catalyst for getting the project moving.
The bond committee will make a recommendation to the City Council in the coming months about whether to call for a bond election and if so, how much to look to raise. Shelton said the city will look to get between $60 million and $100 million in federal grants, with bond money covering the remainder of the costs.
Should the city decide to move ahead, officials will be betting that North Texas will continue to grow and demand will exist to support a third airport. They would also be assuming that enough people would want to travel out to McKinney so that airport revenue would allow the city to pay back the debt service in a reasonable amount of time.