Although I have learned the logic, and despite spending my professional life around aviation, I still find it incredible that a chunk of metal filled up with people, baggage and cargo can take to the sky. Not only does it do this, but it happens almost every second of the day and night somewhere in the world and it is promoted as being safer than getting in your car. Absolutely incredible--and a testament to the designers and builders who create these amazing, and mainly reliable transporters of people and goods across the world.
Long may it continue; however, the modern world has come up with at least two major challenges to this status quo, and they are terrorism and the acute competition between airlines in a recessionary market. The good news is there are antidotes--which are money and security--but the bad news is that although everyone wants safe skies, few seem prepared to pay for it in expense, inconvenience or perceived loss of their individual rights. Much of the latter is caused by overzealous governments making unjustifiable demands on personal information that are in some cases reasonable but in others risible and questionable in overall motive. This even creates a situation where there becomes a collective anger against countries such as the USA for their "treatment" of visitors. Americans who wonder why their nation can be disliked overseas should look no further than the current visitor restrictions and plans, and consider how they would feel in similar circumstances.
It would be a great (albeit far fetched) idea if some kind of global standard could be set for the purposes of identifying and preventing terror in the air, as it seems this lack of continuity and sometime extremism around the world not only creates confusion but also leaves loopholes across the air networks. The confusion created by varying restrictions on everything from gate security controls to bag numbers, liquids, cutlery and even children's toys bear witness to this. Speaking of security controls, I was interested to discover that in Australia they are now testing whole body scanners that see right through people's clothes. The mind boggles at the sights that will be seen.
Moving on to the safety issue relating to competing airlines, I think this is growing into a major concern and possible risk. In their fight to reduce cost and survive in a declining market many airlines are looking for savings across their cost base including maintenance. There is an ever-growing trend to outsource this activity offshore, which I personally find rather scary. On top of this, many pilots are being set longer duty rosters and aircraft are flying longer hours, too. In my opinion, there need to be better-enforced international standards in this area. There are some in place but they are at best patchy and can be poorly monitored.
Finally, I would like to express my concern as to how closely global airline airworthiness standards are being monitored. It worries me that apart from the European Commission, there is nobody except individual countries monitoring and acting where necessary. Even in the EC, the department is tiny--although apparently it is frequently visited by various country leaders with pleas not to name their national carriers. Strong rumour has it that the EC is about to name four European air carriers when publishing their black list in the next few days, which will really set the cat amongst the pigeons. If named, these airlines may not be banned but the publicity will be devastating. Even if the EC stops airlines flying into the community, it cannot stop them globally. It is reported that an African airline whose entire fleet has been banned from Europe is still sanctioned to fly by their aviation authority. How many similar others are out there in this big wide world of ours? Remember, you and yours may not be safe by identifying and avoiding these carriers as they still might be able to fly over your cities. And how can you identify all of them? Unfortunately, you may not be able to rely on your agent, as they would get slaughtered if they cast doubt on a licensed airline without expert technical knowledge.
So, my points are simple to make, albeit hard to remedy. We must review and reset global standards on security and maintenance, and introduce a global, EC-style monitoring system. Airlines must be made to retain their high level of investment in maintenance despite economic pressures, and some new, dedicated international organisation needs to sit on top of all these issues. Travellers need to accept that safe flying means higher cost and I am sure that savvy airlines could benefit from this if they handled it right. We have the foundations now with organisations like the FAA, ICAO, IATA and the EC but they must be unified into creating one worldwide solution.
Me? I am going to fly to Australia and get a job at an airport security scanner in time for the next Miss Universe pageant.