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The air transport sector of the Central Europe Functional Airspace Block: an analysis of the socioeconomic relevance
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DOI：10.1016/j.retrec.2026.101764.png)
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Abstract
En 中文
The air transport sector plays critical roles in modern economies, as direct contributor to GDP, employment and emissions, and as key enabler of international connectivity. By analysing the sector's own interdependencies and its enabling role in other industries, this study provides a novel framework and comprehensive assessment of aviation's footprints. This is performed using a novel integrated framework that captures backward effects through hypothetical extractions, as well as catalytic tourism and trade effects with rigorous methods for analysing the value-added (employment and GHG emissions) content of trade. We examine this socio-economic relevance of the aviation industry in the Central European FABEC region, comprising Belgium, France, Germany, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, and Switzerland, by employing multiregional input-output (MRIO) modelling. We find that although the aviation sector accounts for less than 1% of total output for FABEC countries, its total economic impact reaches almost fifteen times its direct size nationally and twenty-two times with international effects. The impacts on directly-dependent sectors (trade and tourism) account for the majority (90%) of the impact. Aviation-enabled tourism generates substantial economic activity, especially in outbound markets, while air freight, despite its small volume, carries disproportionately high economic value due to its role in high-value, time-sensitive trade. This latter aspect, which emerges as the highest impact in our findings, had not been computed in prior major international studies. Additionally, the analysis shows that emissions generated along the aviation supply chain relative to the total are higher than the equivalent value-added share. The research then also contributes novel empirical evidence.
Keywords:
Aviation
Air transport sector
Economic significance
Input-output analysis
Central Europe
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