ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on Central and Eastern European (CEE) countries and the relationship between their economic performance and air transport markets. In 2004, all seven investigated Central and Eastern European countries, together with Slovenia, Malta, and Cyprus, joined the European Union and entered the single aviation market. However, compared with the developed economies of Western European regions, Central and Eastern European countries still lag behind them in terms of the level of GDP per capita. The transformation of CEE economies from centrally managed to market-driven, initiated at the end of the 20th century, led to gradual changes in air transport markets at the beginning of this process. Air transport liberalisation accelerated the transformation and integration processes of CEE countries, not only in the field of air transport markets, but also through the development of whole economies. The relationships between economic development and the air transport market have been the subject of many studies.
