Economic Importance of Air Transport and Airport Activities in Belgium – Report 2015
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A Service of Leibniz-Informationszentrum econstor Wirtschaft Leibniz Information Centre Make Your Publications Visible. zbw for Economics Vennix, Saskia Working Paper Economic importance of air transport and airport activities in Belgium – Report 2015 NBB Working Paper, No. 324 Provided in Cooperation with: National Bank of Belgium, Brussels Suggested Citation: Vennix, Saskia (2017) : Economic importance of air transport and airport activities in Belgium – Report 2015, NBB Working Paper, No. 324, National Bank of Belgium, Brussels This Version is available at: http://hdl.handle.net/10419/182209 Standard-Nutzungsbedingungen: Terms of use: Die Dokumente auf EconStor dürfen zu eigenen wissenschaftlichen Documents in EconStor may be saved and copied for your Zwecken und zum Privatgebrauch gespeichert und kopiert werden. personal and scholarly purposes. 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Sofern die Verfasser die Dokumente unter Open-Content-Lizenzen (insbesondere CC-Lizenzen) zur Verfügung gestellt haben sollten, If the documents have been made available under an Open gelten abweichend von diesen Nutzungsbedingungen die in der dort Content Licence (especially Creative Commons Licences), you genannten Lizenz gewährten Nutzungsrechte. may exercise further usage rights as specified in the indicated licence. www.econstor.eu Economic importance of air transport and airport activities in Belgium – Report 2015 Working Paper Document by Saskia Vennix July 2017 No 324 Editorial Director Jan Smets, Governor of the National Bank of Belgium Statement of purpose: The purpose of these working papers is to promote the circulation of research results (Research Series) and analytical studies (Documents Series) made within the National Bank of Belgium or presented by external economists in seminars, conferences and conventions organised by the Bank. The aim is therefore to provide a platform for discussion. The opinions expressed are strictly those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Bank of Belgium. Orders For orders and information on subscriptions and reductions: National Bank of Belgium, Documentation - Publications service, boulevard de Berlaimont 14, 1000 Brussels Tel +32 2 221 20 33 - Fax +32 2 21 30 42 The Working Papers are available on the website of the Bank: http://www.nbb.be © National Bank of Belgium, Brussels All rights reserved. Reproduction for educational and non-commercial purposes is permitted provided that the source is acknowledged. ISSN: 1375-680X (print) ISSN: 1784-2476 (online) NBB WORKING PAPER No. 324 - JULY 2017 ABSTRACT This study assesses the economic importance of air transport and airport activities in Belgium in terms of value added, employment and investment over the 2013-2015 period 1 . The sector considered embraces not only the activities directly connected with air transport, but also all those that take place on site at the six Belgian airports (Antwerp, Brussels, Charleroi, Kortrijk, Liège and Ostend). The study reviews the direct and indirect effects of the sector on the basis of microeconomic data (mainly obtained from the Central Balance Sheet Office) and mesoeconomic data (from the National Accounts Institute). It also includes a social balance sheet analysis and an indication of credit risk using statistical models from the NBB’s In-house Credit Assessment System (ICAS). In 2015, air transport and airport activities generated € 6 billion in direct and indirect value added (i.e. 1.5 % of Belgian GDP) and employed around 62 500 people in full-time equivalents (FTEs) either directly or indirectly (1.5 % of domestic employment including the self-employed). Brussels and Liège Airport remain the country’s biggest airports, respectively in terms of passenger and cargo traffic. In the aftermath of the terrorist attacks in March 2016, the regional airports received part of Brussels’ passenger traffic. All in all, Brussels recovered fairly quickly, especially freight traffic, but also passenger traffic resumed gradually to tie in with growth again since November 2016. Brussels and Liège are the fastest growing airports during the 2013-2015 period, respectively in terms of value added and employment. At Ostend Airport, these economic variables slumped in line with the evolution of freight traffic volumes. Antwerp’s growth rates went into the red as well, mainly under the influence of the difficulties faced by VLM Airlines. At Charleroi and Liège, the trend of value added is downward, while that is not the case for employment. The smallest changes are recorded in Kortrijk. JEL classification: C67, D40, J21, L93, R15, R34 and R41. Keywords: air transport, airport activities, sector analysis, indirect effects, employment, value added, investment 1 This is an update of the study conducted on the basis of 2012 data by F. Van Nieuwenhove (2014), Economic Importance of Air Transport and Airport Activities in Belgium, NBB, Working Paper No. 273 (Document series), Brussels. NBB WORKING PAPER No. 324 – JULY 2017 Corresponding author: NBB, Microeconomic Information Department, e-mail: [email protected] Research results and conclusions expressed are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Bank of Belgium or any other institution to which the author is affiliated. All remaining errors are ours. The author would like to thank her colleagues from the Microeconomic Information Department, in particular Mr François Coppens for his methodological input and data extraction support and Mrs Rita Peelman for her editing assistance, as well as the airport operators and all the companies who responded to the survey. Special thanks go to Messrs Rudy Trogh, Head of Department at the NBB, and George van Gastel, Head of Service at the NBB, for their support and their comments on this paper. NBB WORKING PAPER No. 324 - JULY 2017 CONTENTS FOREWORD ............................................................................................................................................. 1 INTRODUCTION ....................................................................................................................................... 2 AIM AND GENERAL METHODOLOGY OF THE STUDY .................................................................................................... 2 INTERNATIONAL ECONOMIC AND SECTORAL CONTEXT ................................................................................................ 4 1 ECONOMIC IMPORTANCE OF BELGIAN AIR TRANSPORT AND AIRPORT ACTIVITIES AS A WHOLE ....... 8 1.1 PASSENGER AND FREIGHT TRAFFIC .............................................................................................................. 8 1.2 VALUE ADDED ...................................................................................................................................... 12 1.3 EMPLOYMENT ....................................................................................................................................... 15 1.4 INVESTMENT ....................................................................................................................................... 18 1.5 SOCIAL BALANCE SHEET .......................................................................................................................... 21 1.5.1 Working time and labour costs ................................................................................................. 21 1.5.2 Structure of the workforce ........................................................................................................ 22 1.5.3 External staff ............................................................................................................................ 23 1.5.4 Staff turnover ........................................................................................................................... 24 1.5.5 Training .................................................................................................................................... 25 1.6 CREDIT RISK ......................................................................................................................................... 27 2 ECONOMIC IMPORTANCE OF AIRPORT ACTIVITIES IN BELGIUM ...................................................... 30 2.1 OVERVIEW ........................................................................................................................................... 30 2.1.1 Value added .............................................................................................................................. 30 2.1.2 Employment .............................................................................................................................. 31 2.1.3 Investment ................................................................................................................................ 33 2.2 DETAIL BY AIRPORT ................................................................................................................................ 35 2.2.1 Antwerp Airport ........................................................................................................................ 35 2.2.1.1