Professor David Warnock-Smith delivers inaugural professorial lecture

Professor David Warnock-Smith delivered his first professorial lecture to an engaged audience in the Gateway Lecture Theatre on Wednesday evening.

His lecture examined the role of aviation in long-distance transport and posed the question of whether travelling such mileage when considering long distance freight or passenger trips was an insatiable need or an insatiable desire.

Many in attendance were surprised to learn that long distance transport is any trip over 50 miles (80 kilometres) in the UK, with some having commuted that length in the prior month, including to attend the lecture.

Professor Warnock-Smith’s research and wider commentators have found that for distances over 800 kilometres, travelling by air becomes faster than by high speed rail, highlighting the challenge policy-makers have to reduce emissions.

For example, an 800-mile cross-border trip from Central Houston to Central Mexico City is 3.6 times faster than ground options after taking waiting, stopping and access times into account. Moreover, a 2,500-mile trip from the East to West coasts of the United States of America is 6.7 times faster by air than ground options.

Demand for travelling by air remains high, despite global incidents such as 9/11, the global financial crisis and the COVID pandemic causing temporary reductions. While there is a greater chance of so-called health ‘penalties’ of traveling by air, such as risk of blood clots and contracting transmissible sickness, this is seemingly outweighed by time and cost advantages.

When considering more sustainable alternatives, such as rail, a 2023 study by Brons et al. from the European Commission observed 1,356 routes of less than 500kms across Europe with only 297 (20%) of them having a feasible rail alternative to the direct flight option. Total travel time by rail was faster than air on only 68 of the 297 options where there is a choice.

With policy-makers considering or implementing curtailment options, such as frequent flyer taxes or airport capacity controls, Prof. Warnock-Smith reminded the audience of the need to also enhance public transport, in line with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, to improve social mobility and reduce transport poverty, given only 50% of the world’s urban population had access to convenient public transport services.