To begin I should like to point out that Aeroport de Paris is a public establishment, somewhat similar in structure to the British Airports Authority, whose role is to conceive, study, build and operate civil airports in the Paris region. Our two major commercial airports are Orly and Roissy-Charles de Gaulle. In 1978 their cumulated traffic amounted to 23·5 million passengers, 500 000 metric tons of freight and 290 000 aircraft movements.

The recent history of world air transport is marked with profound upheavals: the advent of jet aircraft, then of jumbo jets, the growth of charter airlines, the creation of airlines by countries having obtained their independence, oil crises, … the latest of these events laden with consequences is without doubt the fundamental questioning of the tariff system as demonstrated by IATA's breakdown, the American deregulation and the re-negotiation of bilateral agreements.

The growth potential of air transport has been realised since the late 1960s /early 1970s when, in the UK, imaginative marketing by tour operators caused a boom in bookings for inclusive tour holidays and scheduled airlines operating across the Atlantic in this period introduced the first of an eventual flood of discount fares. However, far from the expected revenue boom, the eventual reductions in average yield caused by the inflow of ‘new’ passengers and the unexpected cross-over of full fare paying passengers started these airlines on the road to an eventual $2.5 billion loss over a seven year period. An unfortunately timed fuel crisis also added to the difficulties.

Now is the time of reckoning: airlines seem to be moving to a three class service (on the North Atlantic at least), similar to that operated in old steamship lines, in an attempt to maintain revenues from full fare passengers and at the same time encourage ‘discount’ travel.