FLYING - THEN AND NOW (Adapted from the book "Airport International" by Brian Moynahan)

My first flight was from Paris to Portsmouth in 1959. The pilot arrived late, with the stewardess. He wore a leather coat, old trousers and wellington boots. The stewardess had holes in her stockings and wore mirrored sunglasses. They both went into the cockpit without a word.

When we were approaching the English coast, tha stewardess appeared in the cabin. She was still wearing the sunglasses, but her lipstick was smudged. "Southend? Anybody for Southend?" she shouted. The boy in front of me put up his hand. The DC-3 suddenly landed. The boy was shown the door and he jumped down onto the grass field and we took off again. The stewardess went back into the cockpit. I remember thinking at the time flying wouldn´t always be like this.

And I was right. In 40 years, international travels has completely changed, and the world has become a global village. Crossing the world is as easy as (sometimes easier than) getting from one side of a city to another. The world of air travel has developed into a huge industry.

The airports themselves are remarkable places: Paris´s strange and space-like Charles de Gaulle or Dallas/Fort Worth with its Texas vastness. There are airports which are almost jammed with the number of arrivals and departures, like Chicago´s O´Hare or Tokyo´s Haneda; and there are deserted ariports like Tanzania´s Kilimanjaro, lying beneath the snows of that great mountain, wainting for tourist who have never arrived.

But probably one of the greatest of them all is London´s Heathrow, which tops, with Atlanta International Airport and Chicago O´Hare International Airports, the list of both international flights and international passangers. In 2005 Atlanta International handled over 84 millions of passengers, Chicago O´Hare over 77 millions and London´s Heathrow over 68 millions.

Like all the great airports, it dates back only to the last days of the Second World War. The first runway was built on the flat land near the village of Staines in 1944. It was a place of historic interest. One of the most important Anglo-Saxon temples is buried under Terminal Two and the village of Heathrow is now under the main car park. The airport has ghosts. A Saxon prince has been seen near the pounds, where he drowned and an outlaw rides through the cargo sheds, with a three-cornered hat and a black horse. Heathrow has been operating as an international airport since 1 Jaunuary 1946, when a British South American Airways Lancastrian took off into a morning mists on a flight to Buenos Aires. In February 1952, the Queen arrived from Entebbe to set foot on British soil for the first time as monarch.

Since those early days, constant building has been necessary to deal with the growth of air traffic and the demands of air travellers. However, Heathrow shares the same problems as all big airports, too many planes, too many people and too much crime and terrorism. It is the centre point of the air routes between Europe and North America in one direction, and between Europe ant the Gulf, Africa and Asia in the other. It is alive with all citizens of this strange world, rich and poor, honest and dishonest. It is the Airport International par excellence.