THE PHOENIXGOODYEAR AIRPORT: A monument to the city’s past, but more importantly, a key to its future
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he Phoenix-Goodyear Airport is a monument to the city’s past but most importantly, it holds a key to the city’s future. The airport, which turned 72 years old in 2013, was built out of the necessity of national security during World War II. With one of the largest runways in the state on a near 900-acre property, Phoenix Goodyear Airport’s 8,500 foot long runway can accommodate an aircraft as large as a Boeing 747 and Boeing 777. Today, the Phoenix-Goodyear Airport is home to seven businesses and has an economic impact of more than $138 million annually in the Valley, $20 million more a year generated by the Deer Valley Airport in north Phoenix. The Goodyear airport sustains 500 jobs in the region and private employers there reported 218 jobs with a $32.7 million payroll. Airline Training Center of Arizona and AeroTurbine remain the largest employers at the airport. In addition to the existing businesses, the airport is a place where more businesses can open and expand and where ideas continue to take flight. With the arrival of the F35-A Lightning II Fighter Jet pilot training program at Luke Air Force Base in 2014, the airport and the 4,000 acres of available land close to Interstate 10 and Loop 303, the city is poised and prepared to become a jobs hub. The number of takeoffs and landings at Phoenix-Goodyear Airport continue to increase as well as the amount of jet fuel sold
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CITY OF GOODYEAR VISITORS GUIDE
by the airport’s fixed base operator. With the Cancer Treatment Centers of America and West Valley Hospital expanding, the opening of a Dick’s Sporting Goods Distribution Center in Goodyear in early 2013, and the announcement of a $35 million expansion project of the Macy’s Online Order Fulfillment Center, corporate flights are increasing and that spike is expected to continue. And who would guess that Prime Solutions Group – a small defense contracting company adjacent to the airport owned by Waddell resident Joe Marvin – would be doing research that includes fine-tuning the missile defense system to better protect our nation from an attack? So, with that said, it is evident that the importance of the Phoenix-Goodyear Airport not only has come full circle from its beginnings, but that circle remains unbroken in its importance to our city’s past and building on our future.