Intercontinental Air Travel: A Balance-of-Payments Factor

This paper centers about the role of intercontinental air travel as a balance-of-payments factor. While the term "balance-of-payments factor" has neither debit nor credit connotation, the intercontinental travel account, i.s., the the sum of the passenger-fare sub-account and the foreign-travel account has been traditionally a net debit item in the United States balance-of-payments statements vis-a-vis the rest of the world, and for this reason many foreign governments - as well as the United States - have viewed it as a potential contribution to the dollar-payment problems of their countries.