Staff, municipal leadership and members of the Harnett County community all celebrated the newly completed Harnett Regional Jetport (HRJ) building with a ribbon cutting ceremony held this morning at 615 Airport Road in Erwin. 

Under construction since Feb. 2023, the newly completed 7,000+ square foot, two-story terminal is now the home to Harnett Regional Jetport operations and will serve as the new office space for Harnett County Economic Development which, according to leadership, is a further commitment to fostering continuing growth. Across the road from the Jetport, 50 acres of land has been sold for future Jetport and commercial development projects still in early development. 

“This strategic move will undoubtedly enhance our efforts to attract new businesses and industries to our area. We are fortunate not to be landlocked anymore. A local farmer and adjourning neighbors sold us some land so that we can continue to develop our corporate area to attract new business,” shared Jerry Milton, chairman of the Harnett Regional Jetport Advisory Board in his address to the crowd. “It increases our potential for industrial expansion. This geographical advantage, combined with our new terminal, positions us favorably to bring new industry, create jobs and stimulate economic growth.” 

Construction on the new terminal was completed in May of 2024 with Jackson Builders serving as the architects behind the project. 

The new terminal includes a number of new amenities to service businesses and private flyers including conference/ training rooms, lounge areas, a 24-hour pilot’s lounge complete with a full shower and a 2nd-story observation deck overlooking HRJ's midfield. 

The completion of the terminal will allow Harnett County’s to potentially bring a piece of the more than $72 billion in revenue annually generated by North Carolina’s public airports to the area. 

“Today, North Carolina is the third most attractive state for aerospace manufacturing. There are over 280 leading aerospace companies across the state and another 450 that are supply chain companies to this industry. Since 2013, there's been a 20% growth increase within this industry itself,” shared Harnett County Economic Development Director Stephen Barrington. “North Carolina is known as having the largest manufacturing workforce in the South.” 

Barrington shared some aviation statistics to give an idea of the impact of aviation and aerospace workforce throughout the state which could soon be part of Harnett County’s economic makeup: 

• There are over 40,000 aerospace and aviation workers in North Carolina 
• 2,600 aerospace related certificates and credentials are conferred  annually
• Over 1300 service members exit Active Duty annually with skill sets in the aerospace area.

“From a state perspective there are four areas in which they look to recruit and expand. One is aerospace manufacturing, another is maintenance, repair and overhaul, the third is drones, unmanned systems and the fourth is aerospace and defense contracting,” shared Barrington. “Today we can see what Harnett County values and is proud of. In our department, we strongly believe that investments in the Jetport are going to yield great successes in our economic development efforts.” 

North Carolina Department of Transportation’s Division of Aviation Director Rebecca J Gallas was able to join the Harnett County government for the event. She spoke on how the 72 general aviation airports around the state like HRJ are critical to the multimodal transportation network as well as the economy. 

“General Aviation in North Carolina supports a rich ecosystem of aviation activities and businesses as you can see here at Harnett Regional Airport. From freight and cargo, to manufacturing and emergency services, general aviation airports connect North Carolinians to critical services, goods and jobs” shared Gallas.  “HRJ alone generates $147 million in economic impact (according to the NCDOT’s North Carolina: The State of Aviation report released in 2023.See the full report here.) The Jetport also supports more than 670 jobs on the airport and in the region through both direct and indirect impacts. And importantly, HRJ activity returns nearly $6 million in tax revenues to state and local governments annually.”

Today’s event featured only a ribbon cutting ceremony. The Jamboree (fly-in) event originally scheduled to take place in May of 2024 has been rescheduled for this fall. More information on that event will be coming soon. 

Learn more about the Harnett Regional Jetport here.