Air Travel

What is it about air travel that inspires people to think of glamour and excitement? Why do we still use the term 'Jet Set' to describe an elite bunch of people that hop on planes at the smallest provocation to go somewhere in pursuit of the good life and gasp in admiration? And at which point and why do we think that the high life enters into the equation?

Pfui (pace Rex Stout)!

Many moons ago air travel was a rare thing, exotic and expensive. It was wildly inefficient, uncomfortable and also slow by today's standards, but faster than other modes of transport at the time and, more importantly, novel. There was a sort of rakish glamour in air travel, its primitive ways and in the luxury the airlines piled on to compensate during this, the golden age for travellers, and the prices meant that the only regular users were either very wealthy or travelling on business, which led to the assumption that they were a special breed - the Jet Set, important and impossibly dashing.

Now fast forward to 2017, when countless airplanes are crisscrossing the sky in all directions, almost anywhere in the globe is accessible and most destinations are not beyond the economic means of all but the weakest financially members of society. Airports are now massive affairs resembling shopping centres, with the odd counter or two hundred to accommodate the vexing business of shunting luggage around and a constant throng of people moving hither and thither. Glamorous this  most certainly is not, and airports, despite the existence of 'elite' lounges to add a touch of comfort for the more frequent and higher paying customers, are largely dispiriting crowded affairs. Far from being exciting, air travel is now a routine, mundane form of transport like any other, a way of getting from a to b quickly.

How glamorous were the 'olden, golden' days of air travel, though? Not very, actually, if my memory serves me well. Journeys were time consuming affairs, the planes were noisy, slow and ponderous, and the airports were very basic indeed. True, things were not as crowded on the ground or airside, the staff were more cosseting and the food & wine side was less plasticky and more like real stuff, but travelling in itself was not particularly pleasant and before the advent of the modern jets rather slow. I suppose it was safer - on main routes, at least - but then there was so little air travel generally occurring. And the terminals themselves were largely basic, to say the least; but then the fewer people travelling did not spend hours in them. I suppose everything was more amateurish or learn as we go along, for this was a whole new way to travel and previous experience based on travel by ship or road turned out to be irrelevant or useless.

For me as a young child there was certainly a whiff of excitement in standing on an observation balcony watching a plane coming in to land, taxi to a stand with a waiting ladder for disembarkation and being able to actually see the person one was expecting - in my case more often than not my father - walk down the stairs, wave vaguely in our direction and walk across to the arrivals area to go through all the formalities while we made our way downstairs to press our faces against the glass and wait for him. It was certainly a more personal, involved experience and I remember it fondly.

My only experience of a long flight in the late 1950s I remember less fondly, though hazily, as an interminable affair, with a long stopover for refuelling; I dare say any of my co-passengers still alive probably remember the existence of the blond restless little boy less fondly also, as I serenaded them while they were trying to sleep and made my older sister cringe with dismay and embarassment.

Reminiscing apart, I did have reason to be grateful to the rampant commercialism of air travel during my recent enforced long visit to Heathrow, as I was able to avail myself of the services of a pub run by the estimable London brewer Fuller's and enjoy a pint (or two, who's counting) to help pass the time. I was also able to wander around the shops and kill some time looking at all sorts of goods, from books to booze to luxury leather ware, naturally without buying. And modern architectural trends have made the spaces slightly more airy and pleasant than their 70s and 80s predecessors; some terminals are even stylish in a mass market sort of way. Convenient these modern terminals may be, but I cannot bring myself to actually like them; rather, I have learned to accept them.

But if its glamour you're after do not search for it in air travel, unless you believe it consists of free canapés or drinks in an airline lounge, or turning left (pace TPT) when you enter a long haul flight. The Jet Set is now more to do with package holidays and cheap flights, crowded airports and shopping. Romance and glamour have moved on to pastures new...