Chapter 1: Current Issues in European Aviation

The story of contemporary air travel in Europe really began in 1992, with the inauguration of the EU’s concept for an internal market for aviation, whereby the disparate national rules of member states were usurped in favor of a unified approach across the whole of an expanding EU. The policies and legislation that supported and reinforced this concept deregulated the market and paved the way for greater competition between airlines operating within the EU (Graham, 1998). What has emerged since represents a revolution in air travel, whereby the public in Europe now benefit from significantly greater choice and lower fares than could possibly have been imagined back in 1992. There has been a mushrooming of new airline operators offering new routes and slashing prices (admittedly, not all successful), so much so that the air mode often competes with rail for inter-urban journeys, even over quite short distances; again, something that could not be conceived of prior to 1992. Debatably, this revolution in air travel has now come to be regarded, in some quarters, as one of the greatest successes of the EU. There can be no doubt that it has played a significant role in facilitating much greater connectivity within the region and, as a consequence of this, it is said that it has made a vital (and much-needed) contribution to cultural understanding across the nations that comprise the EU (Fox, 2017).