At its Airports Canada 2013 Conference & Exhibition, the Canadian Airports Council unveiled its first economic impact study in more than a decade. Canada's air transportation industry had a $34.9-billion economic footprint in 2012, supported 405,000 jobs and personal income of more than $17 billion and federal taxation of more than $7 billion.
As discussed in the study, this is in addition to broader economic benefits, such as supporting the livelihoods of Canadians in remote regions, economic development in the north and in the natural resources sector, and enhancing business operations and efficiency.
Canada's air transportation system was used by more than 120 million passengers in 2012, an increase of 3.6% over 2011. This aviation activity benefited the federal and provincial treasuries with more than $7 billion collected in taxes in 2012.
The United States continues to be Canada's biggest single travel partner as 24 million passengers — 20% of all passengers — flew between the two countries. In all, 21% of the 1.5 million tonnes of Canadian air cargo was between Canada and the U.S., representing almost $28 billion in trade across the Canada-U.S. border in 2011.
However, air transportation also is becoming increasingly important in trade and tourism with non-U.S. markets. Growth in "overseas" (non-U.S. international) traffic has been particularly strong in the last decade, averaging 4.9% growth per year. While the U.S. passenger volumes traditionally were greater, today U.S. and overseas passenger numbers are about the same; trends favour overseas growth and Canada's air transportation industry is responding to this new reality.
The economic impact study, which was compiled by the Conference Board of Canada and the Airports and Aviation Group of SNC Lavalin, is the first of a two-part air transportation policy exercise. The second part, which will examine Canada's air transport sector growth potential and policy approach alternatives, will be released in mid-September.
