LAX overseas flights add $82.1B to economy

LOS ANGELES, Sept. 12 (UPI) -- Overseas flights into and out of Los Angeles add $82.1 billion to the local economy, an economic-development study said Thursday.

The flights in 2006 also created 363,700 direct and indirect jobs in Los Angeles and surrounding counties, with annual wages of $19.3 billion, the Los Angeles County Economic Development Corp. study found.

An average round-trip transoceanic flight from Los Angeles International Airport every day added $623 million to the economy and sustained 3,120 jobs generating $156 million in wages, the study said.

The agency said it calculated the economic value, jobs and wages from the production and transportation of freight exports and imports, the operation of the airport itself and the purchases made by international visitors on the flights.

Freight exports accounted for more than 80 percent of international flights' annual economic activity, the study found.

On the passenger side, direct overseas flights were vital to the region's economy and, conversely, a lack of direct overseas flights could make the region less attractive to firms entering the U.S. market, the study determined.