Air passenger transport and economic activity

•Correlation between air passenger transport and gross domestic product.•An estimation of the future growth rates of air passenger transport.•A segmentation of the analysis for the various geographical areas of the world.•A formula correlating the number of air trips per inhabitant with the gross domestic product.

In the present paper we analyze whether a correlation exists between air passenger transport and economic activity at world level and for the various geographical areas of the world. Econometric models are calibrated and the coefficient of determination is calculated for each case. The whole analysis permits an estimation of a plausible evolution of air passenger transport activity and of its growth rates that can be expected.