One of the highly controversial issues today relates to whether air travel has more negative impact than positive on modern life. It can be argued that air travel enables more people to travel to various destinations, while on the other hand stands a perspective that air travel has remarkably affected the environment. This essay will elaborate on both sides and thus will lead to logical conclusion.
At the outset, there are numerous reasons ways how air travel could benefit modern life and the most conspicuous one stems from the fact that low-cost flights have enabled people to travel to far away destinations that they otherwise could have never visited. A second point is that affordable air travel can unquestionably contribute to booming of international trade and tourism, hence creating more job opportunities for many people around the globe. A recent research published on the European Tourism Association revealed that the number of European tourists visiting France trebled in the period after low fare flights were introduced in Europe. Thus, air travel creates jobs and drives economic growth.
Nevertheless, some people hold an opposing view and tend to believe that the drawbacks of increased air traffic considerably outweigh its advantages and that governments should mitigate the negative influence of cheap air flights by inflicting more taxes on the carriers of these flights. The main reason for believing this is that the increasing number of airports and the stupendous number of flights have remarkably affected the environment. This is seen in the unprecedented levels of air pollution and noise pollution recorded in the past two decades. Therefore, it cannot be denied that traveling by air has a negative environmental impact.
In light of discussion above, it can be concluded that although the benefit of air travel is prominent, its negative environmental impact should be well handled by governments.
