Airline activity adds $55.2 billion to the UK economy, says travel agent report

Leisure aviation accounts for £14.1 billion or 1.1% of UK GDP a year, a new report claims.

The value rises to £36.1 billion, or 2.8% of GDP when taking account of the economic impact of leisure aviation in the wider economy.

This is larger than either the accounting or advertising industries, the report produced for ABTA says.

It also estimates 1.2% of total UK employment equating to 289,000 full-time jobs across the UK are supported by the sector. This represents more than the total number of jobs supported by the utilities industry.