Why should we care if aviation is up in the air?

ROBERT MAYER - Lecturer in air transport management, University of Huddersfield

Why should we care if aviation is up in the air?

So far, 2010 has seen some major events affecting air transport in the United Kingdom.

January, February and March saw airports around the country being shut because of significant amounts of snow covering the runways and aprons.

Once the snow had gone, British Airways cabin crew held a couple of strikes impacting the operations of the country’s largest airline. In April, this was followed by the most significant event: the eruption of an unpronounceable Icelandic volcano that brought the country’s aviation industry to a halt.

Aircraft movements in many parts of Europe had to be stopped.

Passengers were stranded at airports around the world, not being able to return home from their trips or going on their much-deserved holidays.

And May saw another British Airways strike. This was all on top of a rather bumpy flight for the aviation industry during the recession, which saw a reduction in passengers wanting to fly for their holidays.

Why has this industry been so much in the media? Why does one industry have such an impact on our lives? Why should we care so much whether flights are departing?

Many of us like travelling and we like travelling abroad. From 2000 to 2007 our visits abroad have increased by 20 per cent with nearly 70 million trips abroad by UK residents in 2008.

If we compare that with a total number of people living in the UK of just over 60 million, our trips abroad become even more impressive.

That means that, on average, everyone in this country, from new born baby to senior citizen travels more than once a year abroad.

Coming back to air travel, now guess how many of these trips abroad are by plane? Eight out of 10 trips abroad by UK residents are by air. Any of the above mentioned disruptions will affect our trips abroad, be it to go on holidays or for a business trip.

These disruptions do not only affect our holiday plans. Per year, we welcome around 30 million overseas visitors to the country and about three quarters of them arrive by air.

These visitors stay in local hotels, have dinners in local restaurants, visit museums, perhaps even have a pint or two in your local pub.

They spend over £16 billion per year in our country (well perhaps not all of that in your local).

Air travellers, whether ourselves going abroad, or overseas visitors coming to the UK, support more than 200,000 jobs at airports and over 600,000 jobs in tourism and other transport-related industries.

Air travel might well secure jobs at the B&B around the corner, at your local museum and even at your supermarket.

The recession of the last few years has resulted in a drop in passenger numbers at our airports.

The different events this year have had a further effect on airports with a reduction in passengers in the first few months of the year.

For the future: the aviation industry has shown us in the past, that it is able to cope with challenges.

After 9/11 demand for air travel suffered but only two years after the event we saw demand increasing for UK airlines and by 2004 we saw more people travelling with UK airlines than ever before.

With a bit of luck (including a bit of help from an Icelandic volcano) we should see the aviation industry flying high again very soon.

So far, 2010 has seen some major events affecting air transport in the United Kingdom.

January, February and March saw airports around the country being shut because of significant amounts of snow covering the runways and aprons.

Once the snow had gone, British Airways cabin crew held a couple of strikes impacting the operations of the country’s largest airline. In April, this was followed by the most significant event: the eruption of an unpronounceable Icelandic volcano that brought the country’s aviation industry to a halt.

Aircraft movements in many parts of Europe had to be stopped.

Passengers were stranded at airports around the world, not being able to return home from their trips or going on their much-deserved holidays.

And May saw another British Airways strike. This was all on top of a rather bumpy flight for the aviation industry during the recession, which saw a reduction in passengers wanting to fly for their holidays.

Why has this industry been so much in the media? Why does one industry have such an impact on our lives? Why should we care so much whether flights are departing?

Many of us like travelling and we like travelling abroad. From 2000 to 2007 our visits abroad have increased by 20 per cent with nearly 70 million trips abroad by UK residents in 2008.

If we compare that with a total number of people living in the UK of just over 60 million, our trips abroad become even more impressive.

That means that everyone in this country, from new born baby to our senior citizens travel more than once a year abroad.

Coming back to air travel, now guess how many of these trips abroad are by plane? Eight out of 10 trips abroad by UK residents are by air. Any of the above mentioned disruptions will affect our trips abroad, be it to go on holidays or for a business trip.

These disruptions do not only affect our holiday plans. Per year, we welcome around 30 million overseas visitors to the country and about three quarters of them arrive by air.

These visitors stay in local hotels, have dinners in local restaurants, visit museums, perhaps even have a pint or two in your local pub.

They spend over 16 billion pounds per year in our country (well perhaps not all of that in your local).

Air travellers, whether ourselves going abroad, or overseas visitors coming to the UK, support more than 200,000 jobs at airports and over 600,000 jobs in tourism and other transport-related industries.

Air travel might well secure jobs at the B&B around the corner, at your local museum and even at your supermarket.

The recession of the last few years has resulted in a drop in passenger numbers at our airports.

The disfferent events this year have had a further effect on airports with a reduction in passengers in the first few months of the year.

For the future: the aviation industry has shown us in the past, that it is able to cope with challenges.

After 9/11 demand for air travel suffered but only two years after the event we saw demand increasing for UK airlines and by 2004 we saw more people travelling with UK airlines than ever before.

With a bit of luck (including a bit of help from an Icelandic volcano) we should see the aviation industry flying high again very soon.