In the century since the Wright Brothers flew the first powered airplane, air travel has extended around the world. Today, hundreds of companies battle to attract holidaymakers and business travellers flying to an increasing number of destinations. Every aircraft that takes off needs support services, administration and flight crew.
History
It all started on 17 December 1903, when Orville Wright took to the air at Kill Devil Hill, near Kitty Hawk in North Carolina. The first flight took 12 seconds to travel 120 feet, but by that evening his brother Wilbur, when his turn came, had flown 850 feet in almost a minute. The demands of World War I helped the development of aircraft, and by 7 October 1919 KLM had flown its first commercial flight. The airline continues to operate under the same name to this day and is the world's oldest airline company. Why KLM? It stands for Koninklijke Luchvaart Maatschappij (Royal Dutch Airlines).
KLM's first scheduled flight, on 17 May 1920, connected Croydon (London) with Amsterdam. A De Havilland DH-16 took off with two journalists, a bundle of newspapers and a message from the Lord Mayor of London. By the end of the year, the company had carried 345 passengers, 22 tons of cargo and 3 tons of mail. This innovation had become a success.
The airline operated its first intercontinental flight to Indonesia in October 1924. Regular scheduled flights to the Far East began in 1929 and during World War II KLM moved base to England. In 1945, its home-base, Amsterdam Airport Schiphol, had to be reconstructed from zero and Albert Plesman, who had founded and led KLM from the beginning, threw himself into this task with the same energy he had applied to the pre-war company. By the autumn of 1945 Far Eastern services had recommenced and in May 1946 KLM was the first continental European airline to open transatlantic services to the USA.
In the 1930s, Britain's Imperial Airways forged links with the countries of the then British Empire (later the Commonwealth), the world's largest 'group' of countries. These countries needed to do business with each other, and London. So, imperial developed routes across the globe, all returning to their hub, or 'mother' airport at Croydon. Small airlines belonging to different countries fed into the system. These countries may not have been in the British Empire, but it made sense to use Imperial's routes so they could feed passengers into a worldwide system.
Such a complicated spiders web of routes developed that today it would be impossible to disband them and start again. When Heathrow became the center of this spiders web and the world’s busiest airport (the biggest is Chicago's O'Hare), the world’s airlines had to time departures for Heathrow's convenience. Heathrow doesn't allow more than a small amount of night flights, which means that flights from Asia often have to start in the middle of their night.
At the end of World War II, there were many surplus planes. It didn't take long for entrepreneurs to buy these and start flying scheduled and charter routes. Sadly, a very large percentage went bankrupt, principally because the bosses were long on enthusiasm but short on financial knowledge. But eventually the business sorted itself out, and today most airlines are headed for growth with the introduction of new routes, loyalty programmers such as Air Miles, new airports and, of course, aircraft that may in the not so distant future carry thousands rather than hundreds of passengers.
The only factor holding back growth in Britain is lack of airport capacity. When Heathrow was built just over 50 years ago, the planners believed that air travel would never be for the masses. So only a narrow access tunnel was built, which is constantly jammed with traffic, causing BAA to invest heavily in the Heathrow Express train link between Paddington Station and the airport.
Today, Continental airports such as Frankfurt, Schiphol, Charles de Gaulle, etc are snapping at Heathrow's heels. They have room to expand, and for the past 10 years Schiphol has mounted an aggressive campaign to persuade British people living outside London and flying long haul that it is quicker to fly to the Netherlands to change planes, rather than put up with congestion at Heathrow. Frankfurt makes a big play on the fact that their terminals are nearer so transfers are quicker - hmmm! But it offers 277 destinations, more than any other European airport.
KLM's marketing plan is based on attracting more passengers from neighboring countries, as its 'Dutch home market is not large enough to sustain a major international carrier'.
Airport rivalry alerts potential passengers to what is on offer, so eventually this provides more jobs! Although Heathrow wants to expand from its current 60 million-plus passengers a year, most passengers are probably happy that London has five airports to choose from (Heathrow, Gatwick, London City, Stansted and Luton) and will choose the nearest.
