Canada’s airports are engines for economic development in the communities they serve and one of their most important elements of local infrastructure: Our communities’ vital links to intra-provincial, national and international trade and commerce.

Airports mean important local jobs at small and large communities alike – more than 200,000 direct jobs throughout the country, in fact.

Beyond Canada’s borders, airports are busy marketing themselves to air carriers of the world, in the process bringing worldwide visibility for their communities.This has important implications for tourism and other related sectors that provide local employment.

The local jobs and economic benefits from the addition of just one more long-haul flight to an airport are very real. To illustrate the impact of just one flight, according to an economic impact study conducted for one of our members, just one daily Airbus A340 flight into the airport translates into about 660 full time jobs, or about $28 million in labour income over the course of the year.

Similar benefits come from airport efforts to build their cargo networks, in the process bringing communities improved access to the perishable goods brought in by plane and improving the supply chains for Canada’s important manufacturing sector employers.