Florida Aerospace Industry

FloridaCommerce counts 148,682 jobs at 3,069 establishments in its aerospace and aviation target industry for 2024, paying an average wage of $101,890.

That figure comes from the 2025 Target Industry Report, which draws on Lightcast and Bureau of Labor Statistics data for 2022 to 2024 and gives the sector a GDP of $34.1 billion (FloridaCommerce Target Industry Report 2025). The same report says Florida added over 16,000 sector jobs between 2022 and 2024, a 12.3 percent increase and 3,000 more jobs than any other state, and that Florida became the first state with more than 3,000 aerospace and aviation establishments. It forecasts 14,314 more jobs by 2028, a 10.0 percent increase.

The state's definition is broad. It bundles aircraft and space vehicle manufacturing, navigation instrument makers, satellite communications and space research and technology with air transportation, airport operations, air traffic control, other air transportation support and flight training (FloridaCommerce NAICS list). The sections below break the sector into those official industry codes, using 2025 BLS Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages data.

Among private employers statewide in 2025, air transportation companies employed the most people in the sector at 58,226, while guided missile and space vehicle manufacturing was the largest aerospace manufacturing line at 14,850 jobs.

The table uses the industry codes FloridaCommerce assigns to its aerospace and aviation sector, with 2025 annual averages for Florida from the Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages (BLS QCEW 2025, Florida statewide file). Private ownership unless noted.

Engine makers paid the highest private average in the table, $158,429 a year, and the federal government's space research and technology line averaged $147,458 (BLS QCEW 2025). The file publishes establishment counts for two space propulsion and parts industries, 24 and 10 establishments, but no job figures, so those lines are left out of the table.

Statewide, space vehicle building, aircraft engines and flight training grew fastest in 2025, while aircraft assembly and air transportation jobs fell.

Statewide, guided missile and space vehicle manufacturing added 1,134 jobs, up 8.3 percent, and aircraft engine makers added 494, up 8.2 percent; aircraft manufacturing lost 541 jobs, down 8.2 percent, and air transportation lost 1,081 (BLS QCEW 2025, Florida). Flight training gained 272 jobs, up 6.4 percent.

FloridaCommerce describes the same trend over a longer span. It ranks Florida first in the nation for pilot training business establishments and second in pilot training employment, says that employment rose 40 percent over five years, and says Florida is positioned to overtake Texas in it (FloridaCommerce Target Industry Report 2025). The report also ranks Florida first for air traffic control establishments, GDP and employment, with 13 percent employment growth over five years, and first in aircraft manufacturing, repair and overhaul (MRO) establishments, employment and revenue.

Federal air traffic control is a separate statewide line in the wage file: 13 federal establishments with 1,205 jobs averaging $171,374 in 2025 (BLS QCEW 2025).

Florida's aviation system has over 125 public-use airports, 21 of them with commercial service from the Panhandle to the Florida Keys, plus 11 military aviation facilities, according to the Florida Department of Transportation.

FDOT notes that numerous off-airport businesses rely on that network to move personnel, goods and services (FDOT Aviation Office, Airports). The airport count matters for the jobs data above: other airport operations employed 15,546 people at 285 private establishments in 2025, and local governments ran another 12 airport operations establishments with 3,132 jobs (BLS QCEW 2025).

FloridaCommerce adds that SunTrax in Polk County has become a statewide hub for testing piloted and uncrewed aircraft, and that vertiports are being planned for future air mobility routes such as Miami to Orlando (FloridaCommerce).

Brevard County holds 7,530 of Florida's 14,850 guided missile and space vehicle manufacturing jobs, while flight school jobs are spread across Miami-Dade, Volusia, Orange, Duval and Broward counties.

Brevard's 18 space vehicle establishments paid an average of $140,148 in 2025 and added 1,007 jobs, up 15.4 percent (BLS QCEW 2025, NAICS 336414 by county). The same file lists space vehicle establishments in Orange County (7), Duval County (7) and Okaloosa County (6) but suppresses their job counts, so their size cannot be stated from this file.

Flight training jobs are published for more counties (BLS QCEW 2025, NAICS 611512 by county). Miami-Dade County had 563 flight training jobs at 36 establishments paying $99,895 on average; Volusia County had 459 jobs, up 58 or 14.5 percent, at an average of $48,930; Orange County had 415 at $104,479; Duval County 368 at $112,794; and Broward County 343 jobs at 38 establishments, the most establishments of any county in the file, at $56,568.

These county files report average annual pay only, not medians, and Brevard's space vehicle average of $140,148 sits close to the statewide industry average of $140,455 (BLS QCEW 2025, Florida).

L3Harris Technologies, headquartered in Melbourne, describes itself as the only major aerospace and defense company headquartered in Florida, and Embraer opened a Phenom final assembly unit in Melbourne in 2011.

L3Harris says its Florida roots go back to 1950, that it has been based in Melbourne since 1978, and that its corporate headquarters is at 1025 W. NASA Boulevard (L3Harris Florida careers page; L3Harris corporate page). The company lists a 464,000-square-foot High Technology Center in Palm Bay, where it builds unfurlable mesh reflector antennas of 2 to 25 meters for satellites, a low Earth orbit satellite plant it opened in 2025, a microelectronics facility under construction, and lists a third Florida location on the Beeline Highway in Jupiter. Its corporate page cites more than $21.9 billion in annual revenue, a company figure.

Embraer's corporate history records the inauguration on February 21, 2011 of its Melbourne unit at Melbourne International Airport, the company's first plant in the United States for final aircraft assembly, focused on the Phenom jets, and a Jacksonville unit in 2013 for final assembly of the A-29 Super Tucano (Embraer history).

The Florida aerospace cluster guide covers Space Florida, the spaceports and NASA's economic footprint, and the advanced manufacturing guide covers where Florida manufacturing is concentrated.

Last verified: October 18, 2026, using the BLS QCEW 2025 Florida statewide file, the FloridaCommerce 2025 Target Industry Report, the FDOT airports page, two L3Harris pages and the Embraer corporate history.