The MIT Study Analysis of the Interaction between Air Transportation and Economic Activity: A Worldwide Perspective identifies the reciprocity between air traffic and economic growth for 139 countries between 1970 and 2005: “high correlation coefficients between air passengers and GDP imply that there is a strong linear relationship between the two variables ... Air transportation impacts an economy by providing employment in the aviation sector and creating wider socioeconomic benefits through its potential to enable certain types of activities in a local economy because of its distinctive characteristics: speed, cost, flexibility, reliability, and safety. The region’s economic activity in turn provides capital and generates the need for passenger travel and freight which drives the demand for air transportation services”.
Through its participation in the modernisation of African airline fleets, CAFE will stimulate economic activity by:
• Facilitating operational efficiency improvements
• Making travelling on African airlines a more attractive option
• Helping to mitigate competitive external forces
Thereby empowering Africa as a whole to experience a series of self-reinforcing benefits:
• Younger commercial aircraft
• Better reliability and improved maintenance standards
• Less pollution
• Increased skills and enhanced employment prospects
• Less permanent capital outflow
