Air Transportation and the Reduced Friction of Distance
The first airplane with a hopped passenger paying flew across the bay separating Tampa and St. Petersburg, Florida, in the year of 1914, eleven years after the take-off of the Wright Brothers. The trip costed approximately $200 USD of 2006’s currency, which is only slightly more expensive than that of the trip from Tampa to Seattle with Southwest Airlines in the year of 2007, which more than a hundred times further in distance. The development of aviation has apparently reduced the friction of distance by shortening the time spent travelling from one place to another.
The first international air passenger service was from England to France and began at the end of World War I,1919, which in the same year Paris Convention took place and decided that each nation controls and is responsible for its airspace. However, it was after Word War II that air transportation became the prominent mode of long-distance traveling. Therefore, the main topic of the discussion is the advantages and disadvantages of air transportation, and its relative reduced friction of distance, in terms of duration and cost of air travel for both passengers and freight.
According to International Civil Aviation Organization, the total number of passengers carried in air has increased from 310.4 million to 3.4 billion between 1970 to 2015 (fig.1). Simultaneously, the weight of freight carried in air also has increased from 15.6 thousand tons to 188 thousand tons in the same years (fig.2). Nevertheless, the advantages and disadvantages should both be considered even when the outlook of data and our increased frequency of traveling superficially present the significantly reduced friction of distance. Firstly, air transportation has surely decreased the time of passenger traveling and is by far the fastest. For instance, the flight from London to New York takes about 4-5 hours, while with transatlantic freighters and cruise ships it takes an average of 4-5 days. Also, there is limited traffic congestion in air comparing to on-land transportation. For an example, it takes an average of 4 hours to drive from Los Angeles to Vegas, while it takes only about 1.5 hours on an airplane. However, air passengers have to arrive at the airport at least 1.5 hour before the departure for luggage checking and boarding. Therefore, casual travelers might choose to drive instead of to fly. Air transportation is an efficient pathway of transporting high priority people, such as businessmen and politicians, and cargo of technology industry, such as semiconductors and IPhones). Unlike high-valued technological products, lower-valued and bulky products like rice and wheat are instead transported with ships.
However, the most controversial disadvantage of flying airplanes is that it produces the highest amount of carbon dioxide among all other forms of transportation. According to 2011 UK’s governmental Guidelines to GHG Emission Factor, the CO2 equivalent of long-haul flights is about 325 grams/passenger km, which is 190 grams/passenger km higher than ships (carry cars and passengers) and 265 grams/passenger km higher than the national rail. Also, only non-bulky and high-valued products can be carried with airplanes. Another downside of air transportation is that lots of land are needed to build substantial airports, and around which the residential areas are heavily affected by the noise and air pollution.
As technology advances, the improved jet engines and navigation systems have led to the decrease of fuel consumption, which led to the decrease of cost of air transportation, which is the main cause of the rapid growth in the number of air traveler. As more countries are opened towards aviation industry, deregulation has been made by governments, allowing airlines to map explicit routes around the globe. Nevertheless, the aviation industry has become competitive, in which more and more branch airlines have been merged in order to budgetize the price of flying. Followed by a circular trend, this can again reduce the competitiveness of aviation industry and bring up the cost of air transportation.
Appendix.
Work Cited & More to Read:
1) www.defra.gov.uk. "2011 Guidelines to DEFRA/DECC's GHG Pdf." (n.d.): n. pag.
2) Web. 23 Oct. 2016.
3) "Compare Plane & Ship Travel." USA Today. Gannett, n.d. Web. 23 Oct. 2016.
4) "Air Transport, Passengers Carried." Data. N.p., n.d. Web. 23 Oct. 2016.
5) "Air Transport, Freight (million Ton-km)." Data. N.p., n.d. Web. 22 Oct. 2016.
6) Rodrigue, Dr. Jean-Paul. "Air Transport." Air Transport. N.p., n.d. Web. 23 Oct. 2016.