The report, for the cross-industry Air Transport Action Group ATAG.L by the Oxford Economics analysis organisation, said freight carried annually amounted to 35 per cent of the value of world trade but only 0.5 per cent of the volume.

The study, "Aviation: Benefits Beyond Borders", was issued at the start of a two-day conference on aviation and the environment organised annually by the Geneva-based ATAG and attracting senior industry leaders.

Gross domestic product created and heavily maintained - like international tourism - by the industry, with its 1,568 currently registered commercial airlines, totalled $2.2 trillion, the document noted.

"When you take into account the further benefits from the speed and reliability of air travel, the businesses that exist because air freight makes them possible ... the economic impact would be several times larger," said ATAG executive director Paul Steele.

The report said of the 56.6 million jobs supported by aviation, 8.4 million were directly employed in the industry, 9.3 million in industry suppliers and 4.4 million induced through spending by industry employees.

The part of the tourism sector made possible by aviation employed a huge total of 34.5 million jobs, it added.

Among senior aviation executives due to speak at the conference are Jim Albaugh, President and Chief Executive Officer of Boeing Commercial Airplanes (BA.N), and Thomas Enders, chief of Boeing's European rival Airbus (EAD.PA).

Also attending are Paulo Cesar da Souza e Silva, President of Commercial Aviation at Brazil's Embraer S.A. (EMBR3.SA), and John Saabas, President of aviation engineering company Pratt and Whitney, Canada, a united of United Technologies Corp (UTX.N).

Key topics for the conference include the role of aviation in sustainable development and the development of biofuels as well as airport growth and the part governments play in easing emissions by opening up airspace.

(Reporting by Robert Evans; Editing by Helen Massy-Beresford)

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