The Tennessee Infrastructure Alliance's most recent report on air transportation infrastructure examines various facets of Tennessee's infrastructure, including waste water and mass transit such as airplane travel.

Tennessee ranks fifth in the nation for emplanement, which describes the number of aircraft traveling through each airport, according to the study, which is the second of a six-part series.

Tennessee is a crossroads for air travel and the air cargo business because of FedEx's Memphis headquarters, which causes that airport to be one of the busiest in the world at night.

“If Memphis didn’t have the capacity of its airport to handle all of that traffic then FedEx wouldn’t be here," Rob Ikard of the TIA, said. "And we wouldn’t have the thousands of jobs that come from FedEx.”

For this reason the state should at the very least take care of the airports and, ideally, attempt to improve them, he said.

But yearly maintenance poses a financial problem for many airports and this is even more so given dwindling federal and state funding.

“I think that funding is a challenge across the board and that with fewer federal funds to go around, local communities and airports and airport authorities are challenged to find new ways to come up with the resources they need for maintenance and improvement,”  Ikard said.

He also stressed the importance of expanding infrastructure to meet the needs for the future.

“All the things that we need for economic development, safety and quality of life are delivered through infrastructure,” Ikard said.

Many cities, such as Sevierville, have recognized that adding runways will increase tourism and thus create jobs and revenue.

The TIA is working to do a comprehensive overview of Tennessee’s entire infrastructure and highlight funding issues to policymakers.