Air accessibility and growth – The economic effects of a capacity expansion at Vienna International Airport

We use an econometric endogenous growth model to estimate the impact of air accessibility on GDP and investment growth. This is done in a dynamic panel system estimation framework for the EU-15 between 1993 and 2006. The results are then used to predict the economic effects of an increase in capacity at the Vienna International Airport using actual forecasts of the required information set. We find a GDP elasticity of air accessibility of 0.014 and an investment elasticity of 0.05 for our sample. Given the official passenger forecast this would lead to additional GDP growth in Austria of accumulated 0.81% based on the values of the restricted scenario (no third runway). In a more conservative forecast scenario of 3% annual passenger growth, a third runway is projected to increase GDP by 0.2% by 2040.