Assessing air transport socio-economic footprint

Abstract

Air transportation and economic development interact with each other as aviation makes significant direct and indirect contributions to the economy and increases the cycle of economic activity. Conventional wisdom is to provide an effective tool to provide quantitative estimations on the socioeconomic effects of air transport. This paper focuses on the estimation of the air transport footprint in terms of socioeconomic impacts in national economy. The socioeconomic effects assessment concept and methodology are given, providing an essential tool for planners, economists, analysts and researchers. The methodology concept and modelling approach provide essential benefits to support decisions on air transport infrastructures investments prioritization, fund allocation and sustainable strategic planning. The goal is to provide an essential decision support tool for strategic decisions about planning new air transport infrastructure, when resources are limited, in order to maximize the potential of social and economic development. The numerical application is Greece, which is a very attractive summer holiday tourist destination in southeast Mediterranean, suffering long time from economic stress. The results indicate that air transport is essential for Greece and thorough the last year’s economic downturn is resulting higher dependence to aviation mainly because the tourism and air transport linkage and the high spill-over effect of both industries to national economic model. Keywords: Air transport, Socioeconomic impact of aviation, Input output analysis, Regional development