Aviation and Economy

I am not an economist and neither am I a financial expert. But, do you know that the aviation industry is the best barometer of a national economy? It tells whether the economy is good or bad. Just monitor the current total aircraft population of your aviation industry and you will see the economic trend. Some 25 years ago, the Philippines had the BIGGEST & MOST modern aircraft population of practically all types of state of the art aircraft in the thousands. It was the biggest in Asia. But when the global economy nearly collapsed in the mid 1990's people started selling their aircraft. High value capital assets had to go as part of their belt tightening programs. The aircraft population in the Philippines rapidly declined to even less than a hundred. But when the economy started to slowly pick up some 5 years ago, aircraft importation started to rise up again. While we are still quite far from the large aircraft population we had years back, we now see a steady increase in aircraft purchases by big corporations, airlines and individuals. Philippine Airlines alone has started to modernize its fleet and has already placed a confirmed order of about a hundred brand new Airbus and Boeing wide body jets. Various corporate aircraft and helicopters have been imported in the recent past. That's why the Philippines is now called the emerging Tiger Economy in Asia beating China's GDP. More airplanes means good economy!