ABSTRACT
The burdens of airborne freedom Freedom has been a recurrent theme through this book and in the rhetoric of air transportation. For instance, the tagline in much of Southwest Airlines’ advertising – “You are now free to move about the country.” – plays upon the familiar announcement shortly after takeoff to evoke the possibilities opened up by lowcost air travel. Of course the freedom of the sky is not really free. The last few chapters have pointed to some of the costs that are not incorporated – or at least not fully incorporated – into airfares and cargo rates, especially low fares and rates. In this penultimate chapter, we consider several kinds of costs not previously dealt with in the book: the security and health risks posed by the easier movement of people in an airborne world and the potential role of aviation in global climate change. Coping with these challenges will be a formidable challenge in aviation’s second century and could reverse some of the changes in the speed and scope of everyday life brought by the first century.
