The answer to your question is obviously yes.Air travel in now much more affordable and accessible than it was in 1961. I can't find the relevant world-wide passenger numbers for 1961 and 2005 (maybe someone else has them) but in the UK the number of air passengers rose from 45M in 1978 to 229M in 2005, a factor of more than 5. This factor would be even greater if the starting year was 1991. Others in this thread have pointed out that fares are much less in real terms than they were then.

Once you can solve how to get around physics then great. Otherwise you are lost in a fantasy world now. :-roll

Ah, Mr. Sacks, The life we want as passengers is something we are as likely to see as the Queen Elizabeth making regular runs between New York and Liverpool.Given that, there are minor moves afoot to add some in-cabin services back on special flights or small carriers filling a niche. The new B787 will fly at Mach .85 keeping that basic feature the same as is the shape of the a/c and two pilots sitting up front.It hasn't been very long since Boeing floated the Sonic Cruiser idea which was greeting with no enthusiasm by the airlines as they could not find the proper market in adequate quantities for the idea to work. Air travel is just another commodity. You can have an "umbrella drink" in a fancy club or a neighborhood dive. The price will be far different but it is still just an "umbrella drink". Oh, the back gets there at the same time as the front.You travel far more than I but I still enjoy the takeoff's and landings. Now if we could avoid what happens in between. Oh, and the before and the after. Parking, security screening, waiting, and waiting and baggage claim. If we are lucky we can avoid shuttles or rental cars or cabs. The world has changed and so has air travel. Forever.

Dear Captain John:Thank you for your post and measured tone. Ah, yes, indeed, it's all a dream now, so far away, so long ago,.....!We were lucky to have any of it at all, eh?!!JS

Well from my point of view the simple fact is this. A few years ago I could only afford a Warsaw-London-Warsaw ticket once a year. Now I could afford one once a month if I wanted.Sure it's all a bit grubby and chaotic, but for me the bottom line is that I can now treat flying from A to B as a cheap and fast option.It may have been more glamourous and exclusive in the past but as it was mostly out of my price range, for me it was an irrelevance.As usual, no offence to anyone - have a good weekend :-)

Hey, man, no offense taken. It's just an ol' timer chasing after a way of life that ended long ago.I still wish we were also flying at Mach 10 -- like the "scientists" promised us back in the 1960s (!)JS