The whole infrastructure of air travel was, and is, part of government policy. It is not a natural development of a free economic system - at least not in the way that is claimed. The same is true of the roads, of course.
Sentiment: NEGATIVE
The need for air transport is real, and it's not going to change. The key is to have the right business model and have the right initiatives, in my view, to succeed.
New highways, ports, and runways appear economically foolish if we don't understand the economic growth that flows from such investments.
I think it's inevitable that aviation is a part of the economic growth that surrounds airports.
You and I come by road or rail, but economists travel on infrastructure.
The growth of means of transport has created a world market and an opportunity for division of labor embracing all the developed and most of the undeveloped states.
Because it's cheaper and easier to fly than ever before, air travel is becoming democratized.
If you go to India the roads are being built almost entirely with private sector money and by the private sector. If you look at many, many countries in Europe that's how they're doing it.
How we fund transportation in this country is broken. You all pay a gasoline tax, right? Well, cars go farther, we get electric cars, and so on. And then we do more with the money than just build roads. We do bike lanes and mass transit.
This is absolutely bizarre that we continue to subsidize highways beyond the gasoline tax, airlines, and we don't subsidize, we don't want to subsidize a national rail system that has environmental impact.
I don't think our government really has much of a policy about air travel. I would compare the policies of United Arab Emirates, which has done a terrific job recognizing the value of transportation, of travel.