Flying Unlocks the world to people. (Flying in general)

Member Name: CokaCola

Product:	Flying in general
Date:	06/02/09 (36 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Allows people to see all the countries, travel broadens the mind.

Disadvantages: Bad for the environment, Expensive?

Most people these days have at some point in their life travelled by plane, although I am still commonly surprised when I speak to people that have never before used this method of transport. Travel broadens the mind, there are a plethora of wonderful sites on our planet, and air travel is your key to them. In this review, I will briefly discuss some of my experiences with air travel.

1. Airlines:

There are many hundreds of different airlines that work our skies and they are all based in a specific country. British Airways is obviously the national airline of the United Kingdom and Qatar Airways, the same for the gulf state of Qatar for example. All airlines have a "Star" rating, like hotels do, with Five Star airlines being the best ones, and One star airlines being the worst. Most Airlines will be somewhere in the middle, but it's always nice to travel on a Five Star airline like Singapore Airlines, Cathay Pacific or Qatar Airways as you can be sure that the service you will recieve will be fantastic.

2. Airports:

Some airports, like Dubai International and Singapore's Changi Airport are spacious, high quality, have excellent facilities and it's a pleasure to pass through them. At Singapore Airport you can Shop, Dine, Have a Shower, Feed Koi Carp, and do lots more for example. Other airports are fairly pleasant, there's nothing wrong with them, though they can get busy. These are airports like London's Heathrow airport, and I personally enjoy passing through them. On the other hand, some airports are absoloutely atrocious, with no seating, no shops, huge queus for the toilets and just a general horrible atmosphere. On such airport is Doha Airport in Qatar, which is the hub of the five star airline Qatar Airways. Although Doha is constructing a new airport, which will be much bigger and better, the current one is absoloutely atrocious and I would highly recommend avoiding it if you have the chance.

3. The Environment:

It is popular in the media at the moment that Air Travel is bad for the environment, with many people including celebrities opposing the construction of another runway at London's Heathrow. Aircraft burn jet fuel or Kerosene and allegedly are the biggest polluting form of transport. The problem is, people will always need to travel by plane, because it is the only way to travel fast between two cities. I am not sure if the extra runway will mean that there is a massive increase in environmental damage, because if people want to travel, they will travel, fifth runway or not. I do wonder if the runway will simply free up the existing heavy traffic at Heathrow. On the other hand, it cannot be good for the environment in any way, and so I think more research needs to be done to try and offset the emissions that are produced by commerical aircraft. Everyone always talks about ways to cut emissions by cars, but unfortunately, planes and the environment is still a very underrated issue as far as I am concerned.

I have travelled to many countries, many continents and I have seen some of the world's most amazing sites, all thanks to air travel. I have been very fortunate to fly over the great red sandy expanses of Australia, but also the Alps and the Himalayas, and I have seen some fantastic sites from the Sky. Air travel is great, and I would highly recommend it to anyone, but I think it's important that people are aware of the damage it can do to the planet, and I think people need to give a bit more thought into how it is possible to reduce said damage.

Summary: I love flying, and I highly recommend it as an efficient method of distance travel.