In your editorial (Flight International, 18 December 2001) you say that the airline industry will recover by "cool heads" and the termination of subsidies to "flabby national airlines".

This is in sharp contrast to US thinking and is indicative of outdated European Union (EU) notions. The threat of the demise of the entire airline industry forced the USA to come to grips with notions that were suppressed in the name of liberalisaton. They had to rethink the fundamentals of the air transport sector.

Economic spin-offs to other industries are multifold. US investment in space exploration in the 1960s is an example from which one spin-off, the computer, was enough to create an entire new industry.

There is also a national security element. If this "survival of the fittest" principle was applied in the farming industry it would soon become dependent on imports. In times of conflict this would have obvious implications. Likewise, a nation entirely dependent on the private sector, or on foreign carriers for its air transport needs, is in trouble in time of war. The "survival of the fittest" principle is a noble one - taxpayers should not have to support inefficiency - but there are more delicate ways of achieving this goal. One idea is the formation of a pan-European economic regulation authority. In concept this is similar to the working principle upon which the International Monetary Fund (IMF) is based. The IMF will bail a country out of economical trouble provided certain reforms are implemented, with the aim of getting it on the road to self sufficiency.

Safety must also be addressed with regard to recovery. I have read many letters in your column expressing non-confidence in current security measures. The security measures that will make our industry attack-proof exist as El Al has demonstrated. Yet the political will to implement these measures is non-existent. The restoration of confidence in air travel is a smarter way of protecting the taxpayer than doing away with weaker carriers. We should follow their example, deliver to our successors an industry at least as robust as we inherited, not one that has been "right-sized".

Alexander Maroudis

Athens, Greece

Source: Flight International

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