Conerted_Lurker makes a valid point. Whilst I have retired somewhat from my role of doom monger the figures I have are as follows - draw your own conclusion, the numbers a chunky enough to make it fairly simple:
According to the latest figures from the Bank of England just £5 billion was released through MEW during the first quarter of 2008. This equates to 2.2 per cent of income after tax of all UK residents.
This was the lowest level since quarter 2 of 2001.
The figure is down from the £7.4 billion released in the (preceeding) last quarter of 2007 - £2.4 Billion of spending money stopped dead. Quarter three 2007 saw £11.4 billion withdrawn and the peak came in the first quarter 2007 at £13.9 billion. Early last year equity release schemes accounted for 6.3 per cent of income after tax in the UK.
Thats a lot of cash no longer circulating. And that, RexBanner, is why the housing market has such an effect on the domestic economy and therefore the airline business.
WWW