Airports, tourism and regional economies By Jeremy Birch, Stop Bristol Airport Expansion

Airports, tourism and regional economies Aviation industry claims expansion will create jobs at airports and also in tourism These are major economic justifications for expansion and to ignore environmental costs But how true are these arguments?

Direct Jobs OEF stated direct jobs grew from 180,000 to 186,000 between 1998 and 2004 Passengers increased by 35% Air transport jobs fell from 103,000 to 94,000 The increase was in retail etc Industry claims 1,000 jobs created for every million passengers But these figures indicate a much lower rate (255 at Bristol, 111 for Ryanair etc)

Conclusions Little evidence expansion will create many direct jobs No induced tourism jobs created Outbound tourism creates jobs abroad, not here Increased APD could be used to protect and improve domestic tourism No need to expand airports for jobs or tourism