GA Creates $339B Boost to Economy, New Study Finds

The study was sponsored by the General Aviation Manufacturers Association (GAMA), among seven other aviation industry associations. It covered the economic contribution of the GA industry for 2023—the most recent year for which a full and consistent set of national- and state-level data is available.

GAMA said in a statement Wednesday that leaders of the associations were encouraged by the study's depiction of GA’s “significant contribution” to the American economy.

“Despite challenges that have plagued the entire aerospace industry since the beginning of the pandemic, the segment of the U.S. economy affected by general aviation grew over 150,000 jobs and an additional $92 billion in annual economic impact since last reported in 2020,” said GAMA president Pete Bunce. “This growth takes place at a time when the importance of the societal benefits that general aviation brings to humankind around the globe cannot be overstated. General aviation is the technology incubator for civil aviation—our evolution is spurring more sustainable propulsion systems, safety-enhancing avionics capabilities, advanced material manufacturing, and improved maintenance, training, and support.”

The study showed that 371,900 full- and part-time workers were directly employed in GA in 2023. Including direct, indirect, induced and enabled effects, general aviation supported 1.3 million jobs in total.

Those jobs generated $107.5 billion in labor income, produced $339.2 billion in output, and contributed $178.1 billion to the national GDP.

“Overall, the total GDP [gross domestic product] contribution attributable to general aviation amounted to approximately $529 per person in the United States in 2023,” the study said. “At the national level, each direct job in the general aviation industry supported 2.6 jobs elsewhere in the economy.”

The top three states ranked by the total number of jobs attributable to GA in 2023 were California, Florida, and Texas.  The top three states ranked by total GA output contribution per capita were Kansas, North Dakota, and Alaska.

The total sales of new U.S.-manufactured GA aircraft in 2023 amounted to $12.9 billion. At least 12.5 percent of shipments were jet-powered airplanes that represented the majority of sales at nearly 80 percent.

Turboprop airplanes had the second-highest share of sales in 2023 at 9.5 percent, followed by piston-powered airplanes at 7.3 percent.

In operations, the study cites an FAA estimate that there were 214,222 active aircraft in the U.S. GA fleet, including charter aircraft, in 2023.

“Single-engine piston airplanes made up the majority of the U.S. fleet, accounting for 60 percent of active GA aircraft while twin-engine piston airplanes accounted for an additional 5 percent of the U.S. fleet,” the study stated.

Overall, the U.S. GA fleet logged 28.6 million flight hours in 2023.