Air Journeys Research Articles

Analysis of current methods and Welfare concerns in the transport of 118 horses by commercial air cargo companies

BackgroundStudies on equine air transport practices and consequences are scarce. This prospective study aimed to describe horse and air journey details and practices, document how horse behavior and health changed during the air transport phases, quantify the occurrence of welfare issues, and identify possible associations between horse and journey details, air transport practices, and welfare issues.ResultsData were collected from before departure to five days after arrival on 118/597 horses traveling on 32 commercial air journeys on different routes, varying in duration and conditions. Most horses were middle-aged warmblood females, 26% of which were pregnant, and being moved by air for sales. Before flying, most were quarantined (median: 18; IQR: 9–53 days), and their fitness for travel was certified by veterinarians. At the departure airports, external temperatures varied from − 6 °C to 33 °C, and horses were loaded by experienced flight grooms (median: 35; IQR: 15–40 years) into jet stalls (three-horse: 87%, two-horse: 13%). During the flights, horses were regularly watered (water intake median: 14 L) and fed ad libitum (feed consumption median: 8 kg). At the arrival airport, horses were unloaded from the jet stalls, and external temperatures ranged from − 5 °C to 32 °C. Then, all horses were transported to arrival quarantine by road. Air transport phases affected horses’ health status and behavior; increased heart and respiratory rates and behaviors, such as pawing, head tossing, and vocalization, were mainly identified at departure and arrival. Horse interaction, nasal discharge, increased capillary refill time (CRT), and abnormal demeanor were observed more often one hour before landing while resting and normal capillary refill time were more often displayed five days after arrival (all P < 0.01). One hour before landing, horses with bad temperament and horses of unknown temperament were more likely to develop nasal discharge when transported in winter and autumn (P < 0.001). The likelihood of an increased CRT was associated with shorter flights in horses of unknown travel experience (P < 0.001). Ten horses were injured, and 11 developed pleuropneumonias (i.e., shipping fever).ConclusionsAir transport is a complex procedure with several different phases affecting horse health and behavior. Therefore, experienced staff should carefully manage each horse before, during, and after air journeys to minimize welfare hazards.

Aviation fuel and emissions in air markets with interregional passenger leakage

Attractive air services at large airports in the U.S., over the last two decades, have encouraged interregional air passenger leakage, a phenomenon in which air travelers abandon their nearby small airports in favor of starting their air journeys from large hub airports farther away. The disparities between small and large airports, in terms of air services, are expected to widen because of COVID-19 and further exacerbate passenger leakage. This study estimates the differences in mean aviation fuel consumed and pollutants emitted between air routes from small and large airports in the U.S. Midwest region – routes that are known to be contested according to analysis of an air ticket dataset. Findings indicate that air journeys originating from large airports result in 24% less aviation fuel consumption and considerably lower emissions at the passenger-kilometer level, offering additional insight toward better understanding the environmental impact of a geographically shifting air travel demand.

Development of a robust customer satisfaction index for domestic air journeys

This research proposes a Robust Customer Satisfaction Index for air domestic journeys (RCSI), which could be less sensitive to outlier data than index scores based on the American customer satisfaction index (ACSI) formulation. Since traveler experiences in air journeys are a chain of services related to departure airport service, airline service, and arrival airport service, a new index for measuring passenger satisfaction for air journeys is required. In a sense then, this study is the first step towards integrating satisfaction literature to propose a robust index for air journeys. The Structural Equation Model (SEM) was used to validate the theoretical model. The RCSI model was tested in the context of Colombian major domestic air-route where traveler's perceived quality and perceived value were found to predict significantly overall passenger satisfaction. In this study, we found that the RCSI score is similar to the average for the airline industry in ACSI. The findings show that the RCSI is less sensitive to outlier data than customer satisfaction indexes (CSIs) based on the ACSI model formulation. The RCSI model also allows the airline and airport managers to understand the specific factors, which significantly influence overall traveler satisfaction, by reading the causal relationship in the RCSI model.

Aviation Safety: A Whole New World?

In 2017, over four billion passengers worldwide embarked on air journeys on scheduled flights. Only eight of them were killed in air accidents. Viewed in isolation, this outcome would suggest that the events that produce aviation deaths are on the verge of extinction throughout the world. However, given the rarity of air disasters, year-to-year passenger death tolls are subject to considerable volatility. Here, we examine worldwide data about fatal aviation events on scheduled passenger flights for the decade 2008–2017 in conjunction with similar data for earlier decades. A major difference between this safety study and others is that we work with probabilistic models customized to aviation safety data, with the aim of distinguishing meaningful patterns from random fluctuations. We show that death risk per boarding over 2008–2017 fell by more than half compared with the previous decade, whereas the world’s nations continued to fall into three highly divergent risk categories. Major new developments in recent years include exceptionally strong safety achievements in China—which is slated to be the world’s largest aviation nation within five years—and the Eastern European members of the European Union—which had a fatality-free record in the last decade that constituted the Union’s strongest performance. A troubling aspect of the findings is that the less developed nations did not gain in aviation safety relative to other countries, despite having considerably more room for improvement.

Substitution from Air to High-Speed Rail: The Case of Amsterdam Airport

In this paper we present the results of a study that aims to establish the potential for high-speed train travel as a substitute for short distance air travel at Amsterdam Airport. We investigated the 13 most important destinations that offer direct flights to and from Amsterdam Airport. Almost 40% of the air passengers travelling to/from these destinations are transfer passengers. Empirical evidence reveals that high-speed trains dominate the market for journeys of 2 hours or less, such as between Paris and Brussels. However, trains claim only a tiny market share of journeys longer than 5 to 6 hours; air travel dominates that market segment. Using these findings, we developed a model to estimate the substitution of air travel with high-speed train travel. The explanatory variables in this model are travel time, daily departure options, fares, and the inconvenience associated with transferring at airports. In a “minimum” scenario, we predict that in 2030 high-speed trains could replace approximately 1.9 million air journeys. This calculation is based on feasible reductions of train travel times and increased train frequencies for part of the rail network. In this scenario, Amsterdam–London accounts for more than three-quarters of the predicted substitution. In a “maximum” scenario, substitution could increase up to 3.7 million air journeys per year, provided that inconveniences for passengers when transferring at airports from plane to train are resolved and train ticket fares are reduced by 20%. These two scenarios imply a reduction of 2.5 to 5% of all flights to/from Amsterdam Airport in 2030.

Spoke airports, intentional and unintentional ground travel, and the air travel decision-making process

For air travelers originating from the spokes of the US hub-and-spoke air network, price, flight frequency, and aircraft type are all known factors in their travel decision-making process. Less well known, however, is the extent to which different elements of ground travel enter into these travelers’ air journeys. Based on 51 interviews at four universities at spokes surrounding O’Hare International Airport, this article describes how considerations such as vehicle availability, individual driving ability, localized weather, and unanticipated ground travel are fundamentally part of the air travel decision-making process for spoke travelers.

Sudden deterioration due to intra-tumoral hemorrhage of ependymoma of the fourth ventricle in a child during a flight: a case report

IntroductionTo the best of our knowledge, the association between air travel and intra-tumoral hemorrhage in pediatric populations has never been described previously.Case presentationWe report the case of a two-and-a-half-year-old Caucasian, Iranian boy with a hemorrhaging brain tumor. He had a posterior fossa midline mass and severe hydrocephalus. He had been shunted for hydrocephalus four weeks earlier and was subsequently referred to our center for further treatment. The hemorrhage occurred in an infra-tentorial ependymoma, precipitated by an approximately 700-mile air journey at a maximum altitude of 25,000 feet.ConclusionsA pre-existing intra-cranial mass lesion diminishes the ability of the brain to accommodate the mild environmental disturbances caused by hypercarbia, increased venous pressure and reduced cerebral blood flow during long air journeys. This is supported by a literature review, based on our current knowledge of physiological changes during air travel.

Evaluating light rail as a short distance passenger transportation solution in a midsized town

European Union regards railways as a safe and environmentally friendly transportation mode. One target of EU transport policy is to shift long-distance road journeys and short-distance air journeys onto railways. In local passenger transportation, rail is currently used only in larger cities. This study evaluates light rail as a local passenger traffic solution for a midsized town. The evaluation is based on investment appraisal methodology. In the case studied, the functionality of alternative routes is explored using discrete event simulation. Based on the results, the infrastructure investment of operating network required plays a pivotal role in determining the profitability of light rail public transportation system. Interestingly, environmental issues cannot justify light rail investments alone, even if significant changes would appear in operating environment.

Incidental tourism: British Imperial air travel in the 1930s

Few air travellers along Britain's Empire air routes in the 1930s were intentional holidaymakers. Survey data and passenger profiles culled from other contemporary sources show that most commercial airline passengers flew on work assignment. High fares deterred leisure travel by air, but air passengers flying long-distance on paid business or public service errands incidentally became tourists by virtue of the slow, low altitude, daylight flights that stopped frequently for refuelling: infant aeronautical technology and air travel economics created tourism of sorts along new routes. Sightseeing from the air and on the ground was integral to Empire air journeys. Unpredictability added to the adventure value of flying; the novelty of aerial views added to its scenic value. Airline publicity, documentary films, and passenger accounts and diaries, stressed this in-flight and en-route experience: flying was a new way of seeing and experiencing foreign and historic places and landscapes, and for spotting game. Flying was not just a way of reaching a destination.

Role of the Railways in the Future of Air Transport

The role of the railways in the air transport industry is usually limited to provision of access to airports. However, the development of high-speed rail networks and the congestion and environmental problems faced by the air transport industry suggest the railways could have a greater role in working with the airlines to provide an integrated transport service for medium-distance journeys (up to 800 km). Many air journeys involve two flights and a transfer at a hub airport. The alternative being investigated here would replace air journeys by a rail journey and a flight, and a transfer between them at the hub airport. Such integration could offer a positive alternative to aircraft on some routes and lead to railway journeys to airports becoming part of air transport services, and not only to provide access to them. Integration could therefore provide a better use of available air capacity rather than duplicating some high-speed rail routes and services.

The effects of air transport on the behaviour and heart rate of horses

Although many horses ( Equus caballus) travel by air, there is little information on the effect of this type of transport on their physiology and behaviour. This study monitored the behaviour and heart rate of horses during air transport to identify events that might be stressful, and to compare these measures across long and short haul air journeys. Body temperatures prior to and after transport were also measured. Heart rate was recorded before road transport to the airport to obtain resting levels, and recordings continued throughout subsequent road and air journeys. A range of social activities, together with body postures associated with balancing and resting, were recorded over a series of 30 min observation periods during the air journey. The air temperature and relative humidity (RH) in the aircraft were also recorded. During short haul flights (3–4 h), 16 horses were sampled. Heart rates were significantly higher ( P<0.05) during transitional events (i.e. while loading and unloading the truck and aircraft, and during ascent and descent) than when horses were resting or when the aircraft was in flight. In level flight, horses’ heart rates were close to resting levels and they would regularly doze and rest. In comparison, during ascent and descent, social behaviour, including aggression and submission, increased, and horses were seen to regularly change body postures to maintain balance. During long haul flights (10–15 h), 19 horses were sampled. The difference in journey length did not change how horses responded to transport events. Air temperature and humidity were highest when the plane was stationary (e.g. during loading, unloading, refuelling and delays). Although some sharp increases in heart rate and activities suggested agitation during transitional stages of air transport, these events did not appear to be frequent or long enough to be a significant welfare concern. Horses appear to adapt well to air travel under the conditions studied.

Men of two worlds.

I CANNOT tell you what pleasure it has given me to exchange the gloom and fog of a London winter for the sparkling sun of Southern California and, in place of the colleagues with whom I have been examining for the last four weeks in the finals of the Fellowship of the Royal College of Surgeons of England, to find myself once more in that spirit of warm hospitality and overflowing enthusiasm that characterizes the surgeons of America. It is still a matter of wonder that this tremendous transformation in time, place and circumstance can be brought about in the space of four days. The transatlantic flight produces a liberation of the spirit that is not experienced in any form of surface travel or even in air journeys over land routes. Traveling for a few hours at a speed and a height at which life would be impossible were it

Preventive Medicine in Relation to Aviation

Introduction-The progress of aviation.The protection of communities against diseases liable to be imported by aircraft.Relationship between the incubation period of infectious diseases and time taken by air journeys to distant lands.Administrative measures for the sanitary control of air-traffic:-The International Sanitary Convention for Aerial Navigation (1993).The role of the Office International d'Hygiène Publique, and the Health Organization of the League of Nations.The Public Health (Aircraft) Regulations, 1938.Types of aerodromes for sanitary purposes.Practical measures for the sanitary control of aerodromes and aircraft especially as regards insects, passengers, and freight.POSSIBLE TRANSMISSION OF YELLOW FEVER BY AIRCRAFT: antimeasures, including vaccination.The protection of flying personnel against diseases due to flying.(a) Vision-glare; ocular fatigue of night and blind flying; blacking-out; night blindness.(b) Hearing - noise; aerial telephony; middle-ear deafness, and excessive vestibular stimulation.(c) Respiration-oxygen want.(d) Fatigue.(e) Digestion-ballooning of stomach; air-sickness; rations for long-distance flights; water supply.