Aviation's impact upon business—past, present and future

• Published in: The Aeronautical Journal
• Main Authors: Black, Richard E., Russell Morrissey, G.
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: Cambridge University Press (CUP) 1978
• Subjects: Aerospace Engineering; North Atlantic
• Online Access: http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/s0001924000094963; https://www.cambridge.org/core/services/aop-cambridge-core/content/view/S0001924000094963

Progress in aviation has had and is expected to continue to have a profound impact on business. Transportation has been revolutionised by aircraft in the 20th century. Technology advances and pioneering management have led to the development of an air transportation industry which has spanned the globe, all but eliminated competition from passenger steamships, and reduced the dimensions of the globe to such an extent that most of the major cities of the world are now no more than 24 hours apart. Progress has taken many forms. The time required for a transatlantic journey has been reduced by 94% from the passenger steamship to the subsonic jet transport. Concorde operations have even further reduced this time. As the air transportation industry developed, technology advances permitted it to offer other dramatic improvements such as increased comfort, service, reliability, safety, and at the same time lower fares. Thus, increased economic productivity allowed passenger fares (measured in currency of constant purchasing power) over the North Atlantic to be reduced by two-thirds between 1939 and 1976.