We are proud to introduce the exciting new book series entitled Contemporary Issues in Air Transport and the first volume in that series entitled Air transport: A Tourism Perspective. The aim of Contemporary Issues in Air Transport is to address the state of current thinking and future research direction across the full spectrum of air transport issues. The series will seek to commission the world’s leading aviation scholars, practitioners, and policy makers to edit volumes that address the most challenging and controversial issues facing commercial air transport policy, planning, regulation, management, and operations worldwide. The series will investigate the theoretical and practical concerns relating to the contemporary issues of international air transport and will seek to create a world leading collection of titles that form a globally comprehensive insight into contemporary issues facing air transport regulators, owners, operators, and users worldwide.

We are therefore delighted to introduce the first volume in this series on Air Travel and Tourism which has been edited by Professor Anne Graham of the University of Westminster, United Kingdom, and Dr. Frédéric Dobruszkes of the Brussels Free University, Belgium. In just over 100 years commercial air transport has become the most important high-speed form of long distance travel, with 4.1 billion passengers flying on scheduled commercial flights worldwide in 2017 (ICAO, 2018). Aviation is intractably connected to global tourist activity with over half the 2.1 billion tourists who crossed an international border in 2017 being transported by air (ICAO, 2018). The scale of contemporary leisure air travel has profound implications for people, places, and the environment and intersects with debates surrounding cultural imperialism, environmental degradation, touristic development, destination marketing, and global public health.

This volume seeks to address the role played by air transport with respect to the present day tourist, whether that is on long-haul or short-haul flights. The volume takes an interesting approach, not least by focusing on the different stages of a tourist’s journey—from the reason for undertaking a journey through to the final destination. Clearly, this encompasses a range of issues most notably the nature of the journey, such as visiting friends and relatives, the impact of technology, whether charter or low-cost carrier, airport subsidy, and the like.

The novelty of the volume is the focus on the integration of air transport and tourism since and whilst there is extensive literature relating to both the two areas have tended, on the whole, to be studied in silos. The volume is divided into themes based on four stages of a tourist’s journey namely: the rationale for flying, choosing the transport mode by which to travel, the journey itself and all that entails such as accessing the airport and the airport experience, and finally, reaching the destination and the attraction that affords.

As series editors we have a vision for a world leading collection of volumes that focus on the contemporary issues facing air transport worldwide, offering academics, researchers, students, and practitioners with a real insight into the complex nature of an increasingly important area of worldwide activity.