Clear Skies in Van Nuys

While other regional airports struggle from environmental criticism and community outcries, the Valley’s busiest general aviation spot has seen a thriving decade.

Van Nuys Airport, managed by Los Angeles World Airports, released a new economic impact report in September that shows significant increases in economic output from 2015 to 2024. That includes $3.9 billion in annual regional output, radiating beyond Los Angeles to reach Orange, Riverside, San Bernardino and Ventura counties, representing a 46% boost. The airport also created 18,350 jobs in 2024 – 77% more than shown by the previous survey – and 27% more labor income, landing at $1.1 billion.

Over $2 billion flows from the 730-acre airport to the region’s gross domestic product, according to the report. It saw 340,068 takeoffs and landings in 2024 and is home to major fixed-base operators, such as Clay Lacy Aviation and Signature Flight Support.

That output extends beyond aviation, says Jacob Haik, Van Nuys Airport General Manager. It is a regional hub that hosts substantial warehousing, manufacturing, real estate, healthcare and retail activities – covering “just about everything,” he says.

Beyond that, capital investment is also contributing to the growth. The airport saw some notable upgrades since 2015, including a $16.8 million renovation by Aeroplex Group Partners to its hangar, office and ramp. LAWA also did a $13.1 million runway construction project to update the airfield in 2022.

“It shows that Van Nuys has nearly doubled its economic footprint since 2015, making it one of the most economically significant general aviation airports in the country, let alone probably the world,” Haik adds, noting a “ripple effect” where businesses, buoying on consumer spending, bring each other into the space.

The airport also hosts a strong regional workforce, according to LAWA Chief Executive John Ackerman. Almost 90% of jobs generated by the airport stay within L.A. County, and “the airport’s economic benefits are felt directly in the communities we serve,” he says.

Recovering from the pandemic

The past decade has been more than eventful for travelers.

The COVID-19 pandemic shrank passenger traffic at airports across the country, sending a spillover effect down repair shops and supply chains. The U.S. Government Accountability Office found that passenger traffic in April 2020 was merely 4% of that a year ago across the domestic aviation industry.

Regionally, air traffic was down 85% at Los Angeles International Airport in 2020. It still has not fully recovered as of last year – about 73.7 million passengers passed through the airport in 2025, 16% below 2019’s record-setting 88 million.

On the other hand, Van Nuys Airport has rebounded relatively well from the pandemic. It weathered a “long-term downward trend,” according to the report, but business increased during the lockdown – from about 219,000 in 2019 to about 301,100 in 2021. The airport saw slight fluctuation since then but landed at the higher end of its historic performance spectrum in 2024 at 334,068 operations, a 53.9% increase from 2015.

Haik attributes the strong performance to an increase in general aviation activities during the pandemic, in comparison to the dwindling commercial flights.

“There was a separation of passengers from each other, and so it puts more emphasis on smaller planes – those who can afford to either buy or rent a prop plane to fly short distances with one or two passengers,” he says. “I think it also exposed a lot of people who weren’t exposed to private flights or this type of mode of transportation. That there are other options out there … added to our rebound.”

Air taxi

The next chapter for Van Nuys Airport seems to rest on new technologies. Aviation companies focusing on electric vertical take-off and landing aircraft, or eVTOL, are circling around L.A. for an ideal business landing pad. The technology is backed by a federal program to advance aerospace dominance in various applications – from urban air taxis to emer­gency med­ical drones.

With its gen­er­ous his­tory of sup­port­ing private and small­s­cale avi­ation, Van Nuys Air­port is com­ing up as a major hub on the map for eVTOL oper­at­ors in the near future. Archer Avi­ation Inc., for example, has declared Van Nuys to be a key regional des­tin­a­tion for its county-wide air mobil­ity net­work, after being named the offi­cial air taxi pro­vider for the 2028 Olympics and Para­lympics, and for Team USA.

Known for their alleged quiet­ness and con­veni­ence, the air taxis still pose sig­ni­fic­ant chal­lenges. That includes elec­tric grid capa­city for char­ging, pilot train­ing and find­ing a suit­able main­ten­ance work­force. Besides, they have not yet secured cer­ti­fic­a­tion from the Fed­eral Avi­ation Admin­is­tra­tion, though major play­ers such as Joby Avi­ation Inc. and Archer have reached the final stages of test­ing.

With the cer­ti­fic­a­tion timeline stretch­ing bey­ond this year, the cur­rent task at hand for the air­port is col­lab­or­at­ing with exist­ing fixed-base oper­at­ors to under­stand the needs for air taxi devel­op­ments. That way, it may provide neces­sary infra­struc­tural help, Haik says.

“It’s import­ant to know that when it first begins, it will prob­ably be lim­ited, and then it will quickly ramp up,” he says. “The City of L.A. is going to have to make sure they have everything in place for the plan­ning depart­ment to approve and to look at that type of infra­struc­ture to sup­port the regional growth of (eVTOL air­craft).”

Olympics

Van Nuys Air­port may also see an uptick in air traffic with major events com­ing to South­ern Cali­for­nia. The Olympics and Para­lympics are expec­ted to bring siz­able pas­sen­ger traffic to South­ern Cali­for­nia, even bey­ond com­mer­cial volumes at LAX.

The local gen­eral avi­ation offer­ing, however, is show­ing signs of struggle. Pacoima’s White­man Air­port has been facing intense safety scru­tiny and pres­sure to close after a recent series of run­way acci­dents. Santa Mon­ica Air­port is also sched­uled to close by the end of 2028, due to intense pub­lic con­cerns over noise and safety.

That high­lights the role of Van Nuys Air­port, which might shoulder some of the dis­placed traffic – adding to the increased pres­sure to host a stronger flow of wealthy cli­ents dur­ing the sports events. The air­port would handle the traffic by par­cel­ing out time and space to cli­ents in a pro­cess called “slot­ting,” Haik says.

“There are fans who can afford to have their own plane and fly in, and you need to accom­mod­ate the increased flow, and we do that a vari­ety of dif­fer­ent ways by plan­ning ahead,” he says. “It’s import­ant that we do that again, so we can accom­mod­ate all the vis­it­ors who want to come to Los Angeles in dif­fer­ent modes.”

The FIFA World Cup, Haik adds, is a “good test run” for both LAWA air­ports to under­stand the slot­ting sys­tem and what it takes to pre­pare for events on such scales. Van Nuys Air­port saw increased traffic dur­ing the World Cup, but fell short of his expect­a­tions, per­haps due to the inter­na­tional nature of the games. Still, Haik is con­fid­ent that the Olympics and Para­lympics will spot­light the local air­port and stim­u­late fur­ther eco­nomic growth bey­ond.

“We do expect to see a good uptick over a good period of time, and we’re pre­par­ing for that,” he says.