Common sense says if you want to help the developing world, you do not discourage people from traveling there. |
If the politicians are really serious about helping development, this is the wrong way to go about it, |
In principle, one authority such as EASA is desirable. But this only delivers benefits if the national authorities scale back their activities, and provided that everybody is clear on who is doing what. In that respect there is still some work to be done. |
Local politics is hijacking good sense. |
Making air travel more expensive is certainly not the way to help the third world. |
We have some trials up and running in the U.S. and places like Las Vegas and San Francisco, and we also have trials overseas in Paris and Amsterdam and Tokyo and Hong Kong. |
When SARS occurred no one was talking about it 6 months or a year in advance, there were no plans in place. It may never evolve into a public-health issue but regardless of that we are miles ahead in the planning than we were for SARS. |