Aviation is essential to the economic development of cities, countries and regions everywhere, but governments can only optimize its benefits by addressing the sector’s critical infrastructure and resource needs in their national development strategies.
That’s the key message being conveyed jointly by the International Air Transport Association (IATA) and international aviation’s most prominent organisations in a special new 2017 report just released on Aviation Benefits.
The report’s announcement comes just before World Tourism Day on 27 September 2017, helping to underscore the symbiotic links between positive tourism impacts and the level of aviation connectivity in a given city or territory.
“Aviation is the business of freedom, allowing the people of the world to travel, trade, explore, and visit loved ones. It is the catalyst for $2.7 trillion of economic activity and 63 million jobs worldwide. It is vital that governments and regulators are fully aware of the extent to which aviation is an enabler of social and economic development so that smarter regulation can be put in place to encourage greater air connectivity,” said Alexandre de Juniac, IATA’s Director General and CEO.
The new Aviation Benefits report, aimed mainly at government leaders and national planners, contains a summarized checklist of the steps to be taken to maximize air transport’s socio-economic influence. It also presents helpful overviews of the related investment and partnership priorities to be pursued, and comprehensive regional summaries showing how aviation is improving prosperity all over the world.
It also provides a comprehensive outline of how international aviation connectivity directly aids governments’ ongoing efforts to achieve 15 of the 17 United Nations Sustainable Development Goals adopted under Agenda 2030.
IATA Press Release, Montreal, 25 September 2017
