WHO STILL BELIEVES IN AIR TRAVEL?

October 22, 2023

WHO STILL BELIEVES IN AIR TRAVEL?

This question may seem totally incongruous as air transport has become part of the customs and lives of all the inhabitants of the planet. So much so that its future seems entirely linked to the growth of the world economy and the improvement of the standard of living of the inhabitants. And yet it seems that the Western political class does not share this point of view, judging by the government declarations and the restrictive measures taken against this mode of transport.

Of course, this only concerns Western countries rich enough to ask themselves the questions of zero growth, or even degrowth. This dates back about fifty years, after the Yom Kippur War to be precise. It took place in 1973 and led to a quadrupling of oil prices at the time. And then Western countries, the first to be impacted at the time, learned to live with much more expensive fossil fuels. However, this has not slowed down the development of their economies.

But air transport, a source of considerable wealth, no longer seems to be supported by Western governments, which prefer other types of travel. In the end, this only concerns a very small part of the world's population. According to the latest statistics, North America and Europe represent only 1.114 billion inhabitants (including Eastern Europe) compared to the 4.730 billion in Asia, the 1.419 billion in Africa and the 710 million inhabitants in Latin America and Oceania. In other words, the so-called "Western" countries account for only 14% of the world's population, and the remaining 86%, so to speak, are eager for the means of development, first and foremost air transport.

And that's a paradox. The West is the leading manufacturer of aircraft, and the French, American and German governments are the first to rejoice at the huge orders placed by carriers from countries seeking growth. On the other hand, they try to limit their use by slowing down access to their airports. It is unthinkable to imagine the creation of a new major airborne platform in Western Europe, it is even likely that new constraints will fall on the current large airports. Pressure from the local population, led by demagogue politicians, finally won out. It's simple, we want airlines to be fine, on the condition that they are almost free, but we don't want to hear planes flying anymore. It is easy to forget that the mayors of the municipalities near the airports were the first to generously grant building permits for populations that could not ignore the presence of the planes. The huge progress made between the first generation of jets and the current aircraft that have a 5 times smaller noise footprint seems to have been forgotten.

And at the same time, Asian countries are in the midst of developing their air transport and first of all their airport infrastructure. The Gulf countries began to equip themselves very seriously in the mid-1980s under the impetus of Emirates and the Emirate of Dubai. In the aftermath, Qatar, then Turkey, Abu Dhabi, which has just opened a new and important terminal, followed, while waiting for Saudi Arabia's huge offensive. But the frenzy of building new airports doesn't stop there. China has significantly equipped itself with modern and practical infrastructure, India is following suit, Thailand has created a new airport in Bangkok, not to mention the ongoing modernization of Singapore, to name but a few examples. This wave of equipment goes hand in hand with the massive orders placed by Asian carriers with Western manufacturers.

It doesn't take much of a cleric to predict that Africa, but also Latin America, will also embark on bringing their airports and air traffic control bodies up to international standards, as soon as these two continents have stabilized their economies.

So who still believes in air travel? The vast majority of the world's populations make it the symbol of development for the well-being of their peoples. And in the meantime, instead of supporting the necessary research for the improvement of air transport, Western governments are only finding a way to limit traffic. Look for the error!

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