Union County Provides Excellent Transportation Access

Charlotte/Douglas International Airport has over 600 daily departures and provides nonstop service to over 120 destinations including major cities in Europe, Canada, Mexico and South America. A new $325 million intermodal facility is near completion at the airport, and on-site cargo facilities are operated by several major freight delivery companies. The region is also home to 17 general aviation airports that range in volume from 20 to over 150 per day.

Monroe Regional Airport in Union County is a modern facility surrounded by a high-quality business park, Monroe Corporate Center, which has also been designated as a Foreign Trade Zone. A foreign-trade zone is a designated site licensed by the Foreign-Trade Zones (FTZ) Board at which special customs procedures may be used. These procedures allow domestic activity involving foreign items to take place prior to formal customs entry. Duty-free treatment is accorded items that are re-exported and duty payment is deferred on items sold in the U.S. market, thus offsetting customs advantages available to overseas producers who compete with producers located in the United States.

Interstates 85, 77 and 40 intersect the region, making auto travel convenient and providing over 450 trucking companies access from here to 62% of the U.S. population in one day's drive. The Charlotte Region is also served by the largest consolidated rail system in the country.

With links to 22 states in the eastern half of the U.S., the rail connections to the Carolina coast give the region the status of an inland port. Norfolk Southern and CSX serve over 46,000 miles of track stretching over 20 states in the South, East, Midwest, and Canada. The ports of Wilmington and Morehead City, N.C., and Charleston, S.C., are accessible by rail and serve the region with international shipping capabilities.