5 days without flights
It has now been 5 days without planes in the sky. Luckily, I missed this chaos by 3 days as I returned just in time from Paris last weekend. Amusing at first but this air traffic ban is definitely starting to feel a big weird now. I have been flying at least once a month for the past year and have more trips lined up which is making me wonder just how long this madness will last and whether I will be affected. I certainly hope not but I know at least 3 people whose travel plans have been ruined by this event and the ash isn’t going away anytime soon. On the other hand besides 9/11 I have never been in a place where there were no planes in the sky so the feeling is still novel. The following piece about a future without planes appeared in the BBC:
A world without planes
http://news.bbc.co.uk/today/hi/today/newsid_8626000/8626927.stm
I would certainly hate such a future. Traveling is my passion and not being able to do it freely and easily would be a nightmare.
I still can`t believe that ash has grounded all of Europe. Sounds like something that would happen in the Middle Ages. I read the article from the BBC. I remember a year ago when the markets crashed reading an article from a guy who predicted that air travel could become a thing of the past. He thinks that the cost of air travel would just be too much and that the ordinary citizen could not afford it anymore. Essentially, the demise of the air industry would be jet fuel.
While on the one hand it seems possible when you look at the recent airliners that are in trouble. Just three weeks ago a Canadian airliner shut down and seems like BA has some problems as well.
I still think that it won`t happen. I see advanced technology possible that will give us an edge. At least I hope.
Comment by Dark Knight — April 19, 2010 @ 10:11 pm
I think that it certainly can happen but I think that would be bad, at least for people like me who like to fly. As you mentioned the cost of fossil fuels would be the biggest factor. Also, air traffic contributes upto 10% of pollution in earth’s atmosphere so that could be one reason for planes to be grounded. Perhaps we’ll find alternative fuels or different and more efficient methods of travel.
Comment by cubano — April 20, 2010 @ 7:08 am