Viewing page 5 of 105

This transcription has been completed. Contact us with corrections.

INTERNATIONAL AIR TRANSPORT: CATALYST FOR ECONOMIC GROWTH
by S. Ralph Cohen; Public Relations Officer
International Air Transport Association
The assigned title for this paper is "International Air Transport; Catalyst for Economic Growth." The author has been instructed to treat the subject within the context of the market for air travel--that is, the transport of passengers--between countries, rather than within them; and to be as provocative as possible in the process.
International air travel in this discussion can be defined as a means whereby men can move at high speed and with relative ease, virtually from any point on the world's surface to any other, regardless of terrain, in a short time and at comparatively reasonable cost. 
This is a relatively new freedom of movement, having come into being largely since World War II and having reached its full stride only with the advent of the jet in the last few years. At the moment, this service carries about 23 million passengers a year, or little more than 1 per cent of the total traffic of the subway systems in the U.S. This passenger statistic probably represents about 10 million persons, or only about one third of 1 per cent of the population of the world. The total expenditure involved is about $2,900 million, or a good deal less than what is spend on cosmetics, confectionery, and horse-racing. 
This kind of transport is new. It is as yet by no means heavily patronized. It is certainly not tremendous in terms of dollar volume. One might therefore begin by suggesting that the title assigned to this paper--like so many things said about aviation by aviation people--sets up sweeping assumptions which may be rather difficult to support. 
Air transport is, after all, only one of many phenomena which mould life today. It is also part of a very long history of the movement of men and their goods. If wandering and carrying things are not man's oldest profession, they came along soon after. And the economic history of man started many centuries before 1903. 
The tides of international exchange and its consequent economic development have rolled over wide areas of the world since time immemorial and by the most primitive means of transport. Great empires were built on trade and distribution, and great population movements accomplished, long before men had any means of propulsion other than wind and muscle. The stability of Rome and the prosperity of Egypt were linked by the grain trade. Before that, the Phoenicians had a trading empire which stretched from Britain to India and created specialized economic communities wherever they touched. Even in the Stone Age, Baltic amber was traded as far away as Asia; and the flint-knappers of Central Europe distributed their products over thousands of square miles.