SCRAPPING air passenger duty (APD) would create 61,000 jobs across the UK, according to a report.
The British Air Transport Association (BATA) said getting rid of the levy would see the economy grow 1.7 per cent more than it would with APD by 2020.
The report, based on research by PwC, will be music to the ears of campaigners in Northern Ireland who have long called for APD to be dropped.
In April, a report by aviation consultants Mott McDonald that even cutting the tax in half would result in an additional 3,800 jobs with 200m added to the norths' annual Gross Value Added (GVA) figure.
The tax adds 13 to domestic and European flights from Northern Ireland's three airports but earlier this year, Stormont said it could afford to scrap the duty.
Last month, Belfast International Airport's business development manager Uel Hoey accused the north's politicians of "shying away" from the issue.
The most recent report, an update of the one PwC produced in 2013 for British Airways, easyJet, Ryanair and Virgin Atlantic, predicted removing APD would lead to 7 per cent more overseas visitors within five years.
It said more revenue would be raised from other taxes than is lost from abolition, with a net 570m in extra tax receipts in the first fiscal year, and positive benefits through to 2020 that could add up to as much as 2 billion additional tax receipts.
The report added that the boost to GDP would come in airline investment to offer new routes and maximise existing capacity to meet an estimated 10 per cent increase in the demand for flights.
It would also be boosted by higher productivity, international trade and investment from increased business and leisure travel.
APD raised more than 3bn for the exchequer in 2014/15.
BATA chief executive Nathan Stower said: "Next month's budget must challenge the existing orthodoxy on APD. The UK is an island trading nation yet we have the highest tax on flying in the world."
Willie Walsh, chief executive of British Airways' parent company IAG, said APD was an "out-of-control tax", while easyJet chief executive Carolyn McCall said scrapping the tax was presented "a real opportunity for the UK to be more competitive".
