At the Service of Small and Medium-Sized Carriers

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From the beginning, air transport was designed to be used in the same way in all countries of the
world with the same constraints but also the same possibilities for all. As early as the Chicago
Conference in December 1944, which created the foundations on which air transport was built, and
then with the creation of IATA in April 1945 in Havana, it was clear that this mode of transport should
be accessible to all peoples. This is how, unlike many in the fields of transport: trains, roads but also
hotels, the operating airlines can cooperate with each other at leisure using the same tools and the
same procedures. This is a considerable advantage that is ultimately relatively unexploited.

Of the 1200 or so scheduled airlines, only a few hundred of them use the facilities that they could
greatly benefit from. This of course covers all operational aspects, for example a spare part labelled
AOG (Aircraft On the Ground) in plain English a breakdown for a grounded aircraft, will have absolute
priority on all cargo holds. That is one of the aspects, but the facilities are also exercised in the
distribution of air transport. However, these are very often little known to the small or medium-sized
companies that make up the vast majority of the players, even if they represent only a little more
than 25% of the 1,000 billion in turnover that will most likely be reached this year.

In fact, the large carriers, which have a large infrastructure and specialized services in all areas, are
the only ones to use all the facilities at their disposal, and even then most do not pay any attention to
small markets. But small companies also have the same facilities and they do not use them because
the managers do not have the teams with in-depth knowledge of their usefulness and access. It is
striking to see the energy spent on creating ancillary products such as payment for checked or cabin
baggage, privileged access to certain check-in counters, the use of video games on board, not to
mention the payment of meals or drinks and so on. All this has a cost and even if the revenues end
up becoming significant, the related expenses are not negligible.

Many managers entrust the distribution of their product to the Internet channel alone. I remember
meeting a Swede in the admittedly distant past, the founder of his airline and whose headquarters
were based in Gothenburg. Its product consisted of operating twice a day flights to London, Paris,
Milan and Nice with MD 83s, comfortable 180-seat jets. I asked him how he planned to distribute his
product? “Only through the Internet through my website,” he replied. “Very well,” I pointed out, “but
then you will have to spend considerable amounts of money to inform your potential customers. You
will operate 8 daily frequencies from Gothenburg which has around 500,000 inhabitants, but you will
have to reach the 12 million or so in the London metropolis, the 11 million Parisians who live in Paris
and its surroundings, the 4 million in the Nice area and the 6 million Milanese while in each of these
cities you only operate 2 daily frequencies. It’s going to cost you a fortune. Why don’t you use the
tour of travel agents, whom you will have to pay, but only when they have sold seats?”. This man
took me for a dangerous nerd… But he filed for bankruptcy after 6 months.

Why this anecdote? Simply to emphasize the many facilities available to companies, starting with the
GDSs which are linked to all travel agencies, the IATA BSP (Billing and Settlement Plan) which allows
the issuance of tickets and the repatriation of funds and the “interline” agreements with one of the
two companies specializing in global distribution: Germany’s Hahn Air and France’s APG. However,
all these tools can be used at variable costs with the exception of a few costs for entry into the BSPs,
i.e. the expenses are only payable once the revenues have been received. Why then are they not
used? Most of the time due to a lack of knowledge and it’s a shame. This does not in any way prevent
us from using the tremendous possibilities offered by the Internet.

Everything is designed so that every airline, no matter how small, can access all the world’s markets.
The AFRAA (African Airlines Association) has understood this well because it is in the process of
launching information on the subject to its African constituents. Its example could be usefully copied
by other associations of small and medium-sized airlines for which IATA is too big an organization.

Where is Air Travel Headed?

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It is always interesting to read airline advertisements and press releases. In the end, we learn a lot
about the state of mind of the sector and we can guess the major trends to come. I note an essential
one: it seems that instead of a rapprochement between the “low cost” models and traditional
carriers, there is a shift towards more pronounced diversification.


During the first 50 years of modern air transport, which can be dated back to the end of the Second
World War, only one model existed: expensive transport with an exceptional quality of service to
compensate for the lack of comfort of the aircraft in service at the time. Fares were regulated by IATA
and the competition, which was very weak between operators, was mainly based on the quality of
service, with the emphasis being placed on new aircraft, of which the arrival of the Boeing 747 was
the archetype. And it worked pretty well. This system has led to the creation of a new mode of
transport that is increasingly reliable and expands to cover the entire planet.


The arrival of “low cost” in the early 1980s went a little unnoticed. The model was incomprehensible
to the managers of traditional companies, they simply despised it. Until the moment when it was
acclaimed by new layers of customers seduced by the considerable price differences on identical
destinations because the arrival of these new carriers coincided with the opening of the airspace to
new rules regarding traffic rights. So, faced with a phenomenon that they did not understand and
that they were unable to apply to aging companies, their managers tried to find a solution by
creating “low cost” subsidiaries with mixed success, because a significant part of the differences in
cost prices came from a better use of equipment and staff, which was particularly difficult to get
highly unionized employees to accept.


So gradually, traditional airlines have been forced to lower their costs in order to be able to align
their rates with new entrants. They have done so by densifying planes and cutting back on service,
which has brought traditional products to the same level as that of “low cost”, at least for short and
medium-haul flights, which still constitutes the bulk of the clientele. Add to this increasingly powerful
rail competition, which was an additional argument for lowering both prices and the quality of
service, including at airports.


We could have left it at that, but COVID arrived and everything was reset. When air transport
emerged from the abyss into which it had fallen, pricing policies were rethought and, to their great
surprise, traditional operators found that the massive price increases they had had to put in place to
get their accounts back on track were finally rather well accepted by customers, at least by a large
fringe of consumers. This is how we witnessed a change that was certainly not very brutal, but
nevertheless very effective in the communication of the historical companies, at least those that had
resisted. The focus is no longer on prices, since they have risen significantly and are clearly
differentiated from “low cost”, but on the quality of the product. The cabins were redesigned,
comfort was improved, and the reception in airports reappeared, especially for business customers
who had constantly improving lounges.


For their part, the “low cost” cannot improve their product because it would lead them to increase
their selling prices, which is contrary to their commercial policy, so they are looking for ways to
further reduce the published price offer by creating new sources of revenue. We started with the
payment of checked baggage, then in the cabin and now some people are wondering how it is still
possible to densify the aircraft a little more. We can even see the project initiated before Covid by
Micheal O’Leary, the dynamic President of Ryanair, which consists of making customers travel almost
upright. Thus, with the same cabin volume, we can put a little more passengers and therefore
maintain an ever lower price display.


We can see the two trends taking shape: traditional airlines are improving their product and service,
particularly for the front classes of aircraft, by assuming a clear difference in fares compared to the
“low cost” who are looking for more customers while maintaining an aggressive pricing policy.
Basically, it’s not so bad and everyone will find their fundamentals. As in restaurants or hotels,
customers will be divided according to their choices and means.

Unpacking the Premises of the Aviation Industry

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Sometimes air travel is difficult to understand. Some thunderous practices or announcements
generate misunderstandings, at least as far as I am concerned. Here are a few examples.


The price of the planes
Recently, following his visit to the Middle East, he and Donald Trump’s team may have announced a
massive order for Boeing aircraft from Qatar: 160 long-haul aircraft divided between B787
Dreamliner’s and the latest B777X for a total of 200 billion dollars. I accept that the price of planes
has risen enormously recently, but I don’t see how we can reach such amounts. Let’s take the largest
aircraft, the B777X with 400 to 430 seats depending on the version, the price displayed, before
discounts, is 440 million dollars. This is a far cry from the $1.250 billion average cost of the devices
displayed by the White House press releases. In fact, we would be closer to a total of $120 billion if
we count the letters of intent for half of the number of aircraft announced. Why these
announcements that are not based on any economic reality?


This is all the more curious since Boeing is still unable to predict the date of the first deliveries of the
B777X for the good reason that the aircraft is not yet certified. I am always amazed at the effects of
announcements during which astronomical sums are lined up at leisure, no doubt to make more of
an impact than those of the competitors. In the end, no one really knows the true selling price of the
devices, even approximately. For this to happen, the accounts of manufacturers and buyers, whether
airlines or leasing companies, would have to be a little more detailed. But apparently, no one is
interested in this.


Yield management
This is a very good idea, at least on paper. It is a question of maximizing the revenue of each flight. To
do this, it is advisable not to leave any space empty because it costs as much as those occupied
without bringing in anything. Except that the equipment of the aircraft is not very flexible and it is
impossible to adapt the seats according to their potential revenue, which is unknown. And advances
in computer science have brought their capacity for complexification. In short, the rates evolve
according to the “Yield Managers” who, behind their screens, are responsible for ensuring that the
flight for which they are responsible brings in as much revenue as possible. This is quite normal,
except that customers no longer understand anything and that they have simply noticed that either
they manage to benefit from such cheap rates that they do not cover the costs, or they have the
enormous frustration of having had to pay much more for their journey than their neighbours, all for
exactly the same service. Basically, to fill the last empty seat, airlines have had to accept load factors
often above 90% of the capacity of the aircraft, which causes real discomfort both for passengers and
for crew members who have to deal with the annoyances of their customers.


It would perhaps be simpler to display clear and simple rules by accepting to lose a few points in the
occupancy rate, but keeping an equivalent revenue After all, air transport developed well before the
famous “yield management” was led to such excesses that one can find up to 100 different fares on
the same long-haul flight in the same class of service. A little common sense wouldn’t hurt.


Passenger protection in the event of bankruptcy.
Air Belgium recently filed for bankruptcy, leaving customers who had bought their tickets in advance
in the lurch, pushed to do so by fare rules. They are creditors of 8 million euros and will never see their money.

How is it that air transport officials do not oblige airlines to create a guarantee fund to
compensate for their possible failures? Carriers who are the first to demand this provision from their
distributors should have the decency to do the same on their side vis-à-vis their consumers. By
always wanting to postpone this necessary provision, they expose themselves to the fact that
European and American legislators will take measures infinitely more restrictive than they could
agree. Never asking others what you don’t want to do yourself is very understandable.

The Best Airline

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It’s always hard to name the best airline in the world. What criteria should be used as a basis? How
can they be controlled? How can we ensure continuity of service? Of course, some classifications
exist and they are made with the best objectivity, at least we can credit them with it. And then
everyone can make up their own mind and I give you mine here.


Let’s go back in time. For years, the airline icon was the famous PAN AM. It ruled air travel for at least
three decades. It created all the standards still used today, whether they are related to technical,
operational or commercial aspects. The number of “firsts” it has opened is impressive, from the
crossings of the Pacific aboard giant seaplanes to the entry into service of the extraordinary Boeing
747 developed by the manufacturer at the express request of Juan Tripe, the company’s CEO. But
even myths can disappear. Thus, carried away by a certain arrogance, the company did not survive
the fierce competition that was exerted on international networks from the 1980s onwards.
For a while, European airlines, and Air France in particular, had the wind in their sails. Their quality of
service was unanimously recognized and they were able to put the Concorde online, even though
only 16 aircraft were operated by British Airways and Air France. And then, gradually, these carriers
lost their aura by wanting to compete with the “low costs” without reducing their internal costs. So
European airlines have made their customers pay for the savings by densifying the aircraft beyond
what is reasonable and by removing what made their charm and reputation, the service. And
European operators have had to leave the top spots to other competitors from Asia and the Persian
Gulf.


That’s what I’m getting at, because in my opinion, the best company in the world is now in this part
of the planet. Let’s say it right away, two stand out for the continuity of their service and their
economic performance, I am talking about Singapore Airlines and Emirates. Of course, these two are
not the biggest operators, they are even relatively modest in size compared to the American giants.
Singapore Airlines operates 142 aircraft to 137 destinations and its counterpart in the Emirates 250
aircraft to 148 destinations. This is relatively small compared to the 1,500 or so aircraft operated by
each of the three American giants American Airlines, Delta Airlines and United Airlines. Only the
Americans carry out most of their activity on their domestic market, which is obviously impossible for
both Emirates and Singapore Airlines.


These two airlines have therefore had to conquer their customers far from their bases and to do so
they have had to operate state-of-the-art fleets with impeccable service, carried out on each of their
flights and each destination. Let’s add that both have always made money, with the notable
exception of the years 2021 and 2022, for the good reason that Covid has wreaked havoc. It should
be remembered that the three American giants had to go through bankruptcy and that they were
only able to survive thanks to the facilities granted by “Chapter 11” and the massive layoffs that
followed. None of this for Emirates and Singapore Airlines.


So it remains for me to decide between the two contenders whose merits are equivalent. My
preference is ultimately for Emirates for at least two reasons: the power of its operation, recalling
that of the 250 aircraft operated, 116 are A380s, the current giant aircraft that European leaders
have described as a losing machine, while Sir Tim Clark, the CEO of Emirates, has made it a cash
machine with a historic net profit of 5.2 billion dollars in its last financial year ended in March 2025.
For its part, Singapore Airlines’ result is also up to its ambitions with 2.690 billion in net income. And
then Emirates manages, with the diversity of its destinations, to be among the very first if not the
leading international carrier, maintaining the same quality of product, including in ground services.

Let’s recognize that one of the main advantages of both carriers is their “hub” of exceptional quality.
They have airport facilities that are recognized as the best in the world, which allows them to transit
their customers without them being penalized.
Emirates is certainly helped by its government, but what campaign is not? And then would Dubai
have become what it is without its airline. ? Let’s not babble and let us warmly congratulate the
managers of these two carriers, wishing them not to come down from their pedestal.

For Whom is Air Transport Organised?

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The creators of modern air travel are either already dead or in the latter part of their lives. They
have great difficulty in recognizing it in its present state. Until the end of the 1970s, that is to say
during the first 35 years of this activity born at the end of the Second World War, it was synonymous
with luxury. It must be said that access to it was expensive. In the end, customers paid for a basic
comfort compared to the current state, but they had the impression of disconnecting from the
popular mass condemned to see planes take off from the airport terraces.

This has changed a lot and if the fundamentals: safety, reliability and the search for ever better
technology have remained constants, the same is not true for its consumption. The arrival of “low
costs” has changed everything, first of all the clientele and the way air transport is consumed. This is
not without certain contradictions.

The first is due to ecological constraints. Saving the planet has become a major concern for the
younger generations, who are legitimately worried about its steadily deteriorating condition. But this
same segment of customers rushes to the planes for a yes or no, at least for personal and not
professional considerations, because prices have become so low that you can afford to travel for a
few hours without breaking your budget. However, this acceleration in demand is in itself a producer
of CO² against which the younger generations are trying to fight.

To solve the delicate problem of the real cost of air transport, because it is still necessary to pay for
planes and year in and year out, their cost is €500,000 for the seat on which passengers who pay less
than €100 for a return trip on medium-haul flights sit, customers accept a sharp deterioration in their
comfort. Devices are densified beyond reason and services reduced to their simplest expression. The
U-turn time of the aircraft is so short that the flights at the end of the day are regularly late.
Passengers are forced to wait for long minutes standing on the gangways to speed up boarding. And
finally, the companies have outsourced to their customers a large number of administrative tasks,
such as ticket purchases, the issuance of boarding passes, the check-in of baggage and so on.

Thus modern air transport has moved away from what made its reputation, that is to say a certain
prestige and in fact a certain art of living reserved at the time for a minority of individuals. Each
generation imposes its own way of life on the others. The current working class, let’s say the one
between 20 and 50 years old, has imposed its way of operating on the previous generations, those
who created air transport. Many older customers are not familiar with the digitalization that is
imposed on them, and many older people do not have a computer or a smartphone of the latest
generation. They are also totally helpless in the face of the questions asked, often in an esoteric
language, at least for them.

It is a pity that a segment of the population that has ample economic means cannot find a quality of
products and services that it would be more than willing to pay for, simply because these services do
not exist or no longer exist. However, I note a tendency to find a certain luxury in traditional airlines
which are seeking to stand out from the “low costs” because they are unable to balance their
accounts using the fare range of their competitors. This trend dates back to the end of Covid when
airlines, forced to increase their fares sharply, by around 30%, realized that this did not change the
demand for transport.

There is still some effort to be made to refill the jobs that have been eliminated to make way for
computer tools. Contact with a machine or even a simple telephone will not replace that of a natural
person. The stress of older customers, especially to cross the large airport platforms that are
increasingly gigantic and complex, is becoming an obstacle to travel for people who are largely free
of financial constraints.

Air transport must take care of all its clientele and not some of them, even if they are the most
numerous. After all, a consumer may be entitled to certain things, especially if they are willing to pay
for them.

The First Regular Network in eVTOL

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The case is about to be concluded. The American giant UNITED AIRLINES and the leading manufacturer of eVTOLs (Electric Vertical Take Off and Landing) ARCHER are joining forces to create the first scheduled air transport network. It should be built in the coming weeks between Newark Airport in New Jersey and the center of Manhattan in New York.

Many start-ups have taken an interest in a machine that is close to the qualities of the helicopter by eliminating its main flaw: noise. This is how electric propulsion was chosen, but it posed immense difficulties in developing sufficient energy to tear a weight of several tons from the ground.

After some failures such as the recent one of Volocopter, which was close to success and which was missing a few tens of millions of euros, it seems that the American company, based in San Jose, California, is on the way to being the first to achieve the feat of industrializing this type of machine. To do this, it needed pre-orders from reference airlines such as United Airlines, which put $10 million on the table to reserve the first 100 units of the latest version called “Midnight”. It can carry 4 passengers over a distance of 30 kilometers. It is awaiting certification of the model from the FAA, which should not be long in coming. It should also be remembered that the car manufacturer Stellantis has put 150 million dollars in the balance to reserve the exclusivity of the construction of the aircraft.

30 kilometres may not seem like much, but as the crow flies, it connects most major airports to the city centre. Only the brand new airport platforms are too far away to use this mode of transport, at least for the moment, while waiting for new and more efficient versions.

In fact, the need is not new. As early as the mid-1970s, New York Helicopter connected JFK Airport with the heliport located near 42nd Street in Manhattan from the TWA terminal with Sikorsky aircraft capable of carrying 10 passengers. In the 1980s, Héli France, in cooperation with Air France, also created a first network between the Paris airports: Roissy and Orly, linked to the Paris Heliport and the heliport of the La Défense business district. And let’s remember that Nice airport has been connected by regular flights since 1975 with the Principality of Monaco.

However, ecological pressure has won, many projects have not been able to be carried out and achievements have not withstood the administrative constraints imposed on them. It should be added that political leaders were not inclined to financially support this type of transport, which is supposed to be reserved for the rich and which flies over working-class suburbs. In short, everything has been done successfully to kill a transport facility that has a bright future.

Archer, which managed to find the right financing and the first customers, also obtained its Air Operator Certificate (AOC) on June 5, 2024, less than 6 years after its creation by Adam Goldstein, still its current boss, on October 10, 2018. Let’s salute the feat.

It should not be long before we see these aircraft in the American sky, first around New York with a complete network of services between the 3 major airports: Kennedy, La Guardia and Newark and the center of Manhattan, then between Chicago O’Hare and downtown, all with passengers with United Airlines tickets. This is a great advantage for the company, which will strengthen its offer for high-contribution passengers, who are essential to the prosperity of carriers.

One wonders why European countries are so reluctant to develop this means of opening up large cities. Instead, we see cities like Paris restricting the use of their helipad even though it is beautifully placed.

Of course, we are still a long way from fully automated eVOTLs and these devices will be physically controlled for years to come. But let’s welcome the return of a less noisy means of transport that does not consume fossil fuels.

While waiting for the generalization of these devices, governments would be well advised to put into service regular helicopter lines, if only to open up small agglomerations which, after all, also need a fast mode of transport, even if it is reserved for a certain layer of customers

The Helicopter is Not Finished yet

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Faced with the powerful offensive of ecologists who find this machine too noisy, too fuel-consuming and above all reserved for the wealthiest, at least in private transport use, we began to imagine the end of this mode of transport, especially since its replacement seemed ready to take over, I am talking about the eVTOLs (Electric Vertical Take Off and Landing) adorned with all the virtues. It must be admitted that the latest news is not very optimistic about the replacement of helicopters.

This is evidenced by the recent orders made by the major manufacturers like Airbus, Leonardo, Bell, and Sikorsky have demonstrated the renewed interest in a machine that is very difficult to do without. The best score was made by Airbus Helicopters with 118 orders, including 63 firm orders, at the last Verticon show held in mid-March in Dallas. The restart was felt in 2024 with 455 orders for these aircraft for Airbus Helicopters alone, more than in 2019, all for 182 customers in 42 countries.

It must be said that the helicopter fulfills many very varied missions: from medical evacuations to water bombers, including civilian transport, air defense and even police operations. In short, this is a multifunction machine that has proven itself since the early 1950s. Recent orders show that the reputation of this transport is very resistant to denigration and administrative measures designed to slow down its development, especially since we were seeing the rapid development of its successor, the eVTOL, let’s say the electrically powered helicopter, which is therefore much quieter with its ability to be piloted from the ground with an electronic version announced as very close. The time of passenger-carrying drones was near.

But everything is not so simple. Setbacks are piling up on start-ups that are well established. This is how the European leader Volocopter, selected to operate a service during the Olympic Games between Charles de Gaulle airport and a barge installed on the Seine that never took place, was led to file for bankruptcy at the end of December 2024. The reason for this is unfortunately simple: the company has not found the necessary funding, including from the German national or regional authorities, to carry out the transition from concept to industrial production. This is very sad. This shows the considerable difficulties that developers have to face. Electric propulsion is a first obstacle, but there are many others, first and foremost the management of airspace in environments that are already very congested by current air traffic.

It’s not all over yet, but the hopes raised by eVTOLs have led to desires and these can only be satisfied by conventionally powered helicopters. It will probably take many years to see the replacement of helicopters by eVTOLs, especially since the enormous capital needed for research and industrial development will instead be directed towards aircraft. Indeed, orders are so plethoric and environmental issues so significant that money will go primarily to the aircraft to the detriment of new concepts.

The helicopter still has a bright future ahead of it. It will not only continue its current uses, which will be reinforced by the needs of emerging countries, but it will certainly, finally, be used to open up populations far from major centers, judging by the desire of many economic actors wishing to free themselves from urban constraints while they can carry out their activity largely with the digital tools at their disposal. A day will come when local services between small towns far from large urban centres will accept and even demand their helicopter connections. It will cost infinitely less than letting these small agglomerations wither away. Of course, we can still dream of the arrival of eVTOLs, but their generalization is unfortunately not for tomorrow.

One last remark to conclude. The city of Paris is gradually closing its heliport, located near the city center, to commercial traffic to transfer the latter 60 kilometers from the capital. It goes to show that we can easily make decisions that make no sense, probably under the effect of the best intentions in the world.

The Unloved of Air Transport

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On Monday, March 10, German air transport was almost completely paralyzed following a massive strike by ground workers at airports organized by the powerful Ver.di union. For example, Berlin airport was completely closed, Frankfurt was unable to provide connections, and Munich and Hamburg were also very disrupted. A total of 3,400 flights had to be cancelled and 500,000 passengers were unable to travel. The purpose of this social conflict is to obtain an increase in the salaries of all employees in this sector. There are 28,000 of them in this country, divided into a wide variety of professions, each of which can ultimately block an activity whose complexity can never be overstated.

Indeed, in air transport, a strong hierarchy has been established over time between the different activities. At the very top of the pyramid are the drivers. They are the best paid, the most considered, and the most pampered by the companies. They are also powerfully unionized and are capable of holding long-term social conflicts that are widely supported by their trade unions. They have always won their arm wrestling with the management of the companies. To tell the truth, they are a bit, because of their capacity to cause harm, the nightmare of management.

Just behind are the commercial sailors. They too are well represented by their unions.On the other hand, it is easier to train cabin crew than pilots. As a result, some carriers—particularly low-cost airlines—tend to overexploit cabin crew, knowing they are more easily replaceable than pilots.

But aircrew alone cannot operate air transport. It takes a whole complex infrastructure on the ground to fly planes safely. There is all the technical and operational part that is essential to ensure the marketing, maintenance and even security functions. We still remember the blockades of airports during the firefighter strikes. But these employees are still very well paid. And then a significant part of the airport functions is often entrusted to subcontractors chosen on economic criteria, in other words because they are the cheapest. The consequence is that they cannot pay their employees at a level close to the salaries applied to those of the major aeronautical groups. However, they too are indispensable and even if their capacity to cause harm is infinitely inferior to that of highly protected employees, I am also thinking of air traffic controllers, they are still able to show their presence. This is what they did in Germany.

Let us cite a few examples, without being sure to cover the wide variety of professions. Let’s take the registrars. Many of them belong to subcontractors. Their status is not recognized and they do not benefit from the transport facilities that their counterparts employed by the companies can enjoy. They work staggered hours, often interrupted by very long unpaid breaks and they suffer, like their colleagues employed by the airlines, the bad moods of passengers, some of whom, fortunately in small numbers, are downright obnoxious. In the chain of exploitation are baggage handlers. No one sees them, but passengers are very happy to find their suitcases on the baggage belts when they arrive. They work outside in all weathers and at all hours.

Passengers must then go through the PIFs (Screening Inspection Stations), which are also served almost exclusively by subcontracting companies. They too suffer from the bad moods of customers who are exasperated by an approach that does not always seem useful to them and sometimes too nitpicky, especially since the procedures are not homogeneous between airports and sometimes even between terminals of the same airport.

And then there are the appliance cleaning employees. They only have about thirty minutes to completely rearrange a cabin. We never see them either, but they do a very honourable job at very different hours. It is hard to imagine the state in which passengers can sometimes leave their seats. We could add the bus drivers, who are a very important component of operational punctuality and who must know how to manoeuvre their machines in the middle of air traffic, or the refuellers, without whom the aircraft would have no fuel.

I certainly forget some, but I think of them every time I take a flight and I always admire when the doors of the aircraft are closed on time and the chocks are removed in time for the aircraft to meet its schedule.

The Ambiguous Relationship Between Air Transport and Governments

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This is a difficult subject to analyze as the interactions between governments and air transport are complex. This starts with the observation that airspace belongs to the states but that its civilian exploitation is carried out by independent operators, whether public or private. However, the latter are ultimately dependent on the sovereign power, if only to obtain exploitation rights.

The first ambiguity comes from air traffic control. This is essential, everyone will agree, and it is most often operated by state administrations whose management capacity is sometimes questionable. This is how the social management of air traffic controllers has a considerable impact on the regularity of airlines. The latter are powerless to ensure that social conflicts are foreseen in advance and that state managers are able to avoid them.

Access to airports is also largely dependent on governments, which can regulate the number of movements at leisure for a wide variety of pretexts. This can go as far as the protection of the national airline. The example of limiting the number of movements at Orly airport to 250,000 under the pretext of the environment was actually taken in 1995 to protect Air France from the probable arrival of British Airways on the airport. On the other hand, the latest limitations on European airports such as Amsterdam, Schiphol or London Heathrow respond well to environmental constraints, not to say ecological pressure.

Traffic rights are a diplomatic weapon of the first order. Since each country is sovereign, it is normal for it to grant operators the right to operate according to its national interests. This is the subject of bargaining whose results are sometimes uncertain. It is surprising, for example, to see French airlines regularly losing market share on their territory to foreign carriers. But sometimes Open Skies agreements, which are fiercely debated between groups of states, can prove to be very profitable. The case of Morocco is very interesting in this respect. After difficult times spent surviving in the face of the wave of European operators, Royal Air Maroc has finally created a Europe-Africa hub at Casablanca airport, of which it is the first user and the first beneficiary.

And then the states use their airlines as an almost obligatory instrument of influence in their necessary international trade. Having your national carrier is a mark of existence and a major economic factor. In this respect, the example of Dubai is very interesting. Once a second-tier emirate in the 1970s and 1980s, it has since become a global magnet through the development of its airport system and its iconic airline, Emirates. Since then, Dubai has passed this first milestone to become a leading economic and financial base. A country like Rwanda seems to have perfectly registered the lesson and is steadily developing its company Rwandair. The same could be said of Ethiopian Airlines, which has become a first-class standard-bearer for his country.

At the end of the Second World War, the United States largely used its two major international carriers, Pan Am and TWA, to dominate the Western world. This observation did not prevent them from abandoning them when the difficulties and perhaps their inadequacy fell on these incumbent carriers.

At its core, air travel may have become a commodity for many countries, but it is nonetheless at the service of governments. The latter also find in the customers of this type of transport a windfall to finance land transport which has difficulty balancing its accounts while air transport is obliged to do so. So instead of being supported economically by governments, it becomes a source of revenue that is blithely drained without being left with the necessary resources to finance its decarbonization, which is nevertheless being demanded loudly by political leaders.

The relationship between governments and air transport is so intertwined, so complex and so ambiguous that it is difficult to see how to unravel them. And this is undoubtedly where the main strength of this sector of activity lies.

Air Transport, A Victim of Geo Politics

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The global geopolitical situation does not encourage optimism, at least at the beginning of 2025. Conflicts, even localized ones, have an unfortunate tendency to multiply. In Europe, there is still this war between Russia and Ukraine, and even though strong pressure is being exerted on the Ukrainian President, we still do not see the end of the tunnel. Africa is shaken by internal tensions in certain states, such as Sudan and Ethiopia, but also by territorial disputes between Rwanda and Congo, as well as Algeria and Morocco over Western Sahara. France’s decision to recognize Moroccan sovereignty over this territory has led to strong diplomatic tensions with Algeria. The Asian situation is also impacted by China’s claims over Taiwan and the ongoing latent conflict between the two Koreas, not to mention population transfers between Myanmar and Thailand. The Middle East still struggles to find a lasting solution between Israel and its neighbors.

America has not been spared either, especially with the recent arrival in power of the new President of the United States, who seems eager to add fuel to the fire wherever he can, including by claiming possession of Greenland and Panama. In short, none of this encourages optimism.

And what happens to air transport in all this? If we look at it as a whole, it is strongly impacted—an unsurprising observation given that this mode of transport, designed to connect people of various nationalities, is naturally sensitive to any changes in international relations. We must consider the entire industry, from aircraft manufacturing to the final transport of passengers, including the negotiation of traffic rights, which have become a major geopolitical tool, as well as embargo decrees used as weapons of war. Not to mention the granting of visas and overflight bans.

For example, European operators are at a significant disadvantage compared to their Chinese counterparts in trade between the Old Continent and Asia. No longer able to cross the vast Siberian airspace controlled by Russia—since Russia prohibits them from flying over its territory in response to Western sanctions—they are forced to extend their journeys by two hours in each direction. Meanwhile, Chinese airlines can freely use the much shorter Siberian route.

On a completely different note, Brexit has deprived British carriers of access to the European Open Skies agreement, which had been highly beneficial to them. While they have found ways to circumvent this challenge by creating new companies under European law, this has not improved trade between the UK and the rest of Europe. Similarly, some believe they can influence political relations between France and Algeria by leveraging traffic rights—limiting or even eliminating them until the current tensions are resolved. This issue is all the more sensitive given the large Algerian diaspora in France, many of whom maintain strong family ties with their country of origin.

The embargo imposed on Russia has also had a major impact on aircraft maintenance within the country. The vast majority of Russian-operated aircraft are of Western origin, and their maintenance relies on the supply of spare parts. However, Russia can only obtain these parts through indirect channels and in limited quantities. Without efficient air transport, it is difficult to see how Russia could avoid economic regression, even if its mineral and energy resources allow it to sustain a sufficient budget.

Fundamentally, we are witnessing a shift in global geopolitics toward isolationism, reminiscent of the period following the First World War. This is particularly unfortunate given that the tremendous momentum of international cooperation—largely driven by the rapid expansion of air travel—has helped transform the world in recent decades, despite certain challenges along the way.

Still, the desire to travel remains as strong as ever. There are no signs of a slowdown in the growth of the aviation industry, which is an encouraging sign for the world. As long as people wish to meet others from different cultures, it will contribute to easing tensions. There are also some glimmers of optimism here and there—for example, in Syria or in the improving relations between Kurdistan and Turkey. Lebanon is gradually regaining its autonomy.

Air transport remains an essential tool for peace in an increasingly unstable world. Unlike social networks, which often isolate individuals rather than bringing them together, aviation fosters real human connections—for the better.