the airline industry is a sector vital to the world's transportation and tourism infrastructure and has been in the throes of a life-and-death struggle between the so-called network or original,older companies and relatively new low-cost(LCCs) carriers.
the outcome of this battle will fundamentally change the in industry structure and product.
while travel by sea is ancient and railways were operational by the early nineteenth century air transportation is relatively new.Balloons and primitive gliders had preceded airplanes as flying machines,but these were lighter-than-air.
The first heavier-than-air flight took place at Kitty Hawk,North Carolina,on December 17,1903,when the Wright brothers,who were bicycle makers by trade,flew a device of their own design for 120 feet over 12 seconds.
However not until 1914 did technological advances in speed and size of aircraft make it possible for the start of the first scheduled passenger air service on and 18-mile route between start Petersburg and Tampa,Florida.
The company operating the route ,however folded as soon as the tourism season ended.
At this point World War I intervened and turned the attention of air craft manufacturers toward military applications. At the end of war in 1918,a surplus of aircraft without new orders led to the bankruptcy of many builders.