The European Business Aviation Association (EBAA) has published an Economic Value and Business Benefits Report, outlining the value derived by the European economy from business aviation. This includes 374,000 jobs (directly and indirectly), €3.2 billion in the value of goods and services produced, with an overall €8.7 billion output.
The report was commissioned by the EBAA and produced by Booz Allen Hamilton in collaboration with Deutsches Zentrum für Luft-und Raumfahrt (DLR). It looks at the economic impact of the business aviation sector on the 28 countries in the European Union, plus Monaco, San Marino, Gibraltar, Channel Islands, Island of Man, Norway, Switzerland and Liechtenstein. Its findings build on a similar report published in 2016.
It quantifies the value of business aviation in three areas: enabling economic growth through the jobs and investment; driving efficiencies for businesses; and how much time and cost it can save. The report outlines the individual contribution business aviation makes in every EU country, plus Switzerland, Norway and Iceland.
EBAA’s Chairman, Juergen Wiese, commented: “From the substantive number of jobs to the simple societal benefits – such as air ambulances and medical evacuations – the sector provides a huge amount of value for the European economy and to European business”.
The organisation’s Chief Operating Officer, Robert Baltus, added: “Without business aviation in some regions, business connectivity simply would not be possible, and as a result new ventures and opportunities would never be realised. This is something positive which we must recognise, and this report aims to quantify what specifically that benefit and value looks like.”
Key findings
Business aviation enables economic growth
- Some 374,000 European jobs are either directly or indirectly dependent on the European business aviation industry – more than all the jobs in Cyprus.
- The industry has an output of €8.7 billion and €3.2 billion in gross value added (GVA – which is the equivalent of the GVA of Latvia), and spends €2.5 billion on salaries.
- Business aviation accounts for about than 0.19% of the EU’s GVA.
- France, Switzerland, Germany and the UK are the main players in the sector, producing 76% of the industry’s total GVA.
- Of the above, 192,000 of the sector’s jobs are in the operation of aircraft, including operators, maintenance firms, ground handlers and fixed-base operators.
Business efficiencies arising from business aviation
- Across all European point-to-point flight routes, business aviation flights save an average of 127 minutes, when compared with the fastest commercial transportation alternative.
- Although certain long-haul flights can be faster with commercial jets due to higher ground speed, about 20% of business aviation flights save more than five hours due to avoiding delays and airport procedures.
Business aviation enables connectivity
- Business aviation in Europe serves 25,280 city or area pairs that are not connected by direct commercial flights, which represents about 31% of all the city pairs analysed. Nearly one connection out of three is not connected by any direct commercial flight, so there would be no direct connection without business aviation.
- For the eight city areas looked at in the report, on average, business aviation increased the number of direct connections by more than 450% compared with scheduled commercial aviation.
- Business aviation enables air ambulances and medical evacuations to and from remote regions. According to EBAA data, 12,000 medical evacuation flights were flown, meaning more than 50 daily. According to EBAA data, 12,000 departures (2% of all business aviation departures or 50 flights every week day) were flown to serve medical evacuations.
- Business aviation needs fewer connections and incurs fewer delays making it better for the environment.
You can access the report here.
