>>.A Boeing plane has broken the record for the longest non-stop passenger airline flight, after a 12,500-mile trip from Hong Kong to London. <<
The late poet Philip Larkin, who seldom traveled anywhere outside or even within England, was asked if there was anywhere in the world he would like to visit. He thought a while and then said, "Maybe Hong Kong, if I could get back in time for dinner." But 23 hours each way?
Fifty years ago, most travelers to Europe went by ship, which took about a week out of New York and which cost $440 round trip. That would be $3,000 now, about the cost of a Concorde seat before that folded. Yet a fair number of tourists went abroad and students went for a year. Living costs were so much cheaper in postwar Europe than in the United States then that the rule was that if you could stay two months you recovered the cost of your transportation.
Now living expenses are roughly comparable in the U. S. and much of Europe. There are numerous packages for trips of as little as three days to European cities.
With the end of cheap oil, travel patterns may change again, with European travel again becoming an increasingly expensive luxury for the rich, and longer stays as airfares rise. But unfortunately for Americans, the Almighty Dollar is just another fiat currency, doomed to depreciate. |
