LIBERALISED air service agreements (open sky policies) generate multiple economic benefits, including more jobs, more travel and tourism and more opportunities for consumers and carriers, according to a new global study released by the Pacific Asia Travel Association (PATA) and 11 industry groups.

“The benefits to global economies from open sky policies are real and substantive,” says PATA president and CEO Peter de Jong. “For example, liberalising just 320 of the world's 2,000 restrictive air routes would generate economic value comparable to the Brazilian economy, generating 24.1 million full-time jobs and a $490 billion contribution to global wealth.”
The unprecedented study, entitled Economic Impact of Air Service Liberalization, quantifies the economic impacts of changes in aviation policy based on an economic model developed by InterVISTAS-ga2 Consulting. Data from more than 190 nations and 2,000 country-pairs (international air routes) was used.
The study also found that countries which liberalised air traffic experienced growth in air traffic of at least 12 per cent to more than 50 per cent; that fully liberalising the US-UK market alone would create 117,000 new jobs and generate $7.8 billion in economic value; and that the creation of the Single European Aviation Market in 1993 led to an average annual growth rate in traffic between 1995 and 2004 that was almost double the rate of growth that existed between 1990 and 1994 – and it created 1.4 million new jobs.
More information is available at PATA.org