The EU Member States imported 533 large planes with a weight of 15 000 kg and above from non-EU countries in 2018, worth €21.9 billion. This represents a 68% increase in numbers of EU Member States’ extra-EU large planes imports compared with 2013.
The EU Member States exported 963 large planes, worth €47.7 billion, outside of the EU in 2018. The number of exported large planes to non-EU countries increased by 27% compared with 2013.
Ireland imports over a half of large planes
Ireland imported 284 large planes from non-EU countries in 2018, representing 53% of total extra-EU imports of large planes. This makes Ireland by far the largest EU importer of large planes from the rest of the world, ahead of Poland (37 large planes; 7% of total extra-EU imports of large planes), the United Kingdom (34; 6%), Germany (32; 6%) and Denmark (22; 4%).
United States - main origin of imported large planes
Almost two thirds of large planes’ imports from non-EU countries came from the United States (329 large planes, or 62% of extra-EU imports of large planes), ahead of Brazil (35; 7%), Canada (23; 4%), Japan (16; 3%), Switzerland (8; 2%), the United Arab Emirates (7; 1%) and China (6; 1%).
The source dataset is accessible here.
France, the largest EU exporter of large planes
France exported 339 large planes to non-EU countries in 2018, representing over a third (35%) of extra-EU exports of large planes. This makes France the largest EU exporter of large planes to the rest of the world, followed by Germany (254; 26%), ahead of Ireland (162; 17%) and the United Kingdom (138; 14%).
China and the United States - main destinations for exported large planes
Over a third of EU large planes exports went to two countries: China (192; 20% of extra-EU exports of large planes) and the United States (169; 18%). They were followed by India (67; 7%), Norway (40; 4%), Russia (34; 4%), Mexico (27; 3%), Japan (24; 2%), Saudi Arabia and Vietnam (each 23; 2%).
Note: Due to quasi-transit trade, the adding of intra-EU trade and extra-EU trade may lead to double counting. An example of this would be large planes imported from The United States via the Netherlands, where they are cleared by customs for free circulation, before being dispatched to Germany. This would lead to the same large planes being counted as imports by both the Netherlands and Germany. More precisely, they would appear in the Netherlands' extra-EU imports from The United States and intra-EU exports to Germany and in Germany's intra-EU imports from the Netherlands.
This news is published on the occasion of World Aviation Day (7 December).
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