Lafayette County is located on a direct line between Kansas City and St. Louis. The county is easily accessible by highway, railway, charter air service and barge on the Missouri River.  Within a 500- mile radius of Lafayette County, companies are able to reach:
  • 42% of the nation’s manufacturing shipments
  • 43% of the nation’s wholesale trade
  • 43% of the U.S. population
This includes the larger metropolitan areas of:  Chicago, Dallas, Des Moines, Kansas City, Indianapolis, Memphis, Milwaukee, Minneapolis, Omaha, Oklahoma City, Springfield, St. Louis, and Tulsa.
Source:  Missouri Department of Economic Development
Air Service
HIGGINSVILLE MUNICIPAL AIRPORT located 2 miles east of Higginsville handles smaller personal aircraft wishing to fly in and out of Lafayette County.
SEDALIA REGIONAL AIRPORT handles nearly 20,000 aircraft operations yearly.  Its 5,500-foot lighted concrete runway handles aircraft up to 48,000 pounds gross weight.  A second crosswind runway is 3,600 feet long.  The 700-acre airport is home to more than 20 private and business aircraft.  Available services include: jet fuel, transportation and mechanic.
KANSAS CITY INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT (MCI) Kansas City, Missouri located approximately one hour from Lafayette County.  MCI is consistently ranked in the top-five airports in the North America Airport Satisfaction Study.  Its largest carrier is Southwest Airlines with over 68 daily flights on weekdays, followed by Delta Airlines, currently service 10 destinations nonstop.  Other National and International carriers include:  Air Canada Express, Alaska Airlines, American Airlines, American Eagle, Delta Connection, Frontier Airlines, SeaPort Airlines, Spirit Airlines, United Airlines, United Express, US Airways, and US Airways Express.
River Port
Access to the Port of Kansas City on the Missouri River (which serves as the northern border of Lafayette County) is also less than an hour away affording a multimodal transportation option for the flow of goods to and from the region.  The Missouri River allows barge traffic to flow eastward to St. Louis and the Mississippi River allowing goods to be shipped south to places such as Memphis and New Orleans and the Gulf Coast.  The Missouri River is managed and maintained by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

Highways
Several U.S. and Missouri state highways travel through and connect Lafayette County to the rest of the state of Missouri and the Mid-West region of the United States.  Fifteen interstate and intra-state trucking firms have regular routes through Lafayette County.
U.S. Interstate 70          Travels west to Kansas City and east to Columbia and St. Louis
U.S. Highway 24           Travels west to Kansas City and east to Moberly and Hannibal, Missouri
U.S. Highway 65           Travels south Springfield/Branson, MO and north to Des Moines, Iowa
Missouri Highway 13   Travels south to Springfield/Branson, MO and north to Des Moines, Iowa

Railway
The Union Pacific Railroad (running east-west across the northern section of the county along the Missouri River) as well as the Kansas City Southern Railroad (running east-west across the central part of the county) links Lafayette County to major markets to the east and west.  Piggy-back to both coasts is available from the Kansas City terminal. 
There are four rail intermodal facilities located in Kansas City, providing the option of transporting goods via five major railroads (Union Pacific, CSX, BNSF, KCS, and NS) less than an hour from Lafayette County.  There are four rail intermodal facilities in Kansas City:  I-49 Logistics Center, KCI Intermodal Business Center, Logistics Park Kansas City, Northland Park.