Summertime means travelling for many Europeans. More & more often, it means getting on board of an airplane and travelling south, where summer is guaranteed and warm air & water temperatures make holidays the best time of the year. Fortunately, these journeys have become much more affordable, and many people make flying their preferred mode of travelling.

They take it for granted that sitting in an aluminium or carbon tube, flying through the air at a speed close to that of the sound, at an altitude where normal breathing is no longer possible and the temperatures are 50° below freezing, has become the safest mode of transportation. In fact, by the time they reach the airport, the most dangerous part of their journey is over.

Talking about airports: going through a modern airport today is no longer a social event. Passengers check-in at home & drop off their luggage at self-service gates, they show their boarding cards, which they stored on their mobile phones to a scanner that opens the gate to proceed to security control. It is here, where they encounter the first social contact, before actually boarding the plane.

Arriving on the plane might actually be the first contact with the airline they have chosen. More and more the airlines rely on outsourcing all the ground services, including the direct contact with their customers.

But behind the scenes thousands of people ambitiously work for a safe aviation: mechanics, air traffic controllers, engineers and many more support the professional work done by those on board of the aircraft. Together, they have built an incredibly reliable network and infrastructure that makes aviation what it is today: an essential part of our life!

So – should you be one of our passengers during this summer – why don’t you take a look out of the window again and enjoy the miracle of flying and looking at the world from above? And why don’t you let your crew know that you have enjoyed flying with them? Believe me, they will appreciate it!

by Capt. Dirk Polloczek, ECA President