How much do airports make a week?

Okay, so you want to know how much airports rake in each week? It’s not exactly a simple answer, is it? I mean, think about it – LAX is going to be pulling in a whole lot more than, say, the little airport in my hometown of Boise (which, by the way, is adorable but definitely not a revenue powerhouse).

I was actually looking into this once, trying to figure out if my cousin could realistically afford to live near SFO, given his job. I remember seeing somewhere that salaries for airport workers in California range wildly – from, like, $29,000 a year to almost $94,000! The average was around $36,000, apparently. But that’s just employee salaries, right? That’s not the airport’s actual profit. That’s just people’s paychecks.

The real money for airports – the actual profit – comes from all sorts of stuff. Think passenger fees – those pesky charges you see tacked onto your ticket. And then there’s rental income – all those shops and car rental places, they’re paying rent! And don’t forget the concessions – those overpriced pretzels and coffee that somehow cost a fortune. Ugh. Those things really add up.

The thing is, figuring out the weekly revenue? That’s like trying to catch smoke. It’s so unpredictable, and honestly, I don’t think most airports even bother to publicly report it weekly. It just varies too much – busy holiday weeks versus a slow Tuesday in January. It’s crazy. So, yeah… no easy answer, unfortunately!