Not So High-Flying Air Show

The Paris Air Show at Le Bourget field is celebrating it's 100th Anniversary. Although all the signs around the venue proudly proclaim that the show is the 48th iteration of the Air Show, it's actually the 100th Annivesary due to the fact that the show alternates years with exhibitions in Farnborough, England. The show is among the most popular during the year due to the fact that most major aircraft manufacturers announce major sales and typically unveil their latest products in the hopes of enticing customers to make purchases of newer and better products. Unfortunately the crash of Air France 447 two weeks ago has tempered excitement an dampened the usually festive atmosphere of the show.

In recent years, the show has been marked by the competition between rivals Boeing and Airbus with the prize being the sales of newer commercial aircraft to airlines eager to win more customers ready to fly on the latest and greatest aircraft. The competition came to a head several years ago when Airbus unveiled the double-decker Airbus A380 which subsequently made major sales to Qatar and Singapore Airways. Several other airlines also have commitments to buy them and though Boeing's entry into the Ultra Heavy Carrier commercial airline competition (the Boeing 787) is still to make it's debut with an airline, there was hope that this year would see the competition continue; however, Flight 447's mysterious crash has left many people wondering how badly the aviation industry will be affected by this event.

Already we can tell that there have been affects of the global economy on the aviation industry. If you every have any doubts all you need to do is look at how the aviation industry has been faring in recent years. With the rising cost of fuel, it isn't any wonder that people aren't travelling as much. Although rising fuel costs are one aspect of drop in people flying, the other is the added security procedures that make flying sometimes take longer than driving to a destination. After all, why fly from DC to New York when you could probably make the drive in less time when you account for time spent in check-in, security, boarding, flight time, de-planing, baggage claim and on to your final destination? Doesn't seem like much but the time certainly adds up for most people.

And what about with events such as Air France's flight and the US Airways crash from a few months ago? It seems that whenever any such event occurs the immediate concern is about proving to the public that there was something trivial at fault and that it is something very easily corrected. It's a logical way to reassure people but have you noticed how they go about doing it? After the US Airways crash there was talk about how qualified pilots were and how much flight time they had. Prior to that crash or the water landing of the US Airways flight in New York I don't think I had ever read about how many flying hours a pilot had. With the Air France crash, both pilots had thousands of hours of flying so then what was the smoking gun? The aircraft speed sensors.

There always needs to be that smoking gun for the public to see in order for that reassurance to be there. But what I think people need to realize is that air travel is inherently safe. It is probably the safest form of transportation that there is. Certainly when there are problems they are elevated to a larger scale due to the fact that airplanes do something that man was not really built to do (namely fly) so it's not surprising that there is a different aura about flying but that doesn't mean it's any more or less dangerous than getting in your car and driving to the store. I think we need to stop looking at what the perceived 'problems' are and look at reassuring the public that there is nothing wrong with air travel or the aviation industry. Maybe buyers aren't buying new orders of planes because the public isn't willing to spend tremendous amounts of money to pay for aviation fuel but that doesn't mean they wouldn't take to the air again if ticket prices (and the economy of operating some of the latest planes) made it cheaper to do so.