Advantages and Disadvantages of Air Transport: Transportation plays a vital role in the economic growth of any country. It helps to promote trade, tourism and supports imperishable growth all around the world. Whether it is road transport, water transport or air transport all helps in movement of people and goods in a faster and beneficial way. Air transport is a rapid and sustainable way for moving human and bulky goods so it was better than roadways and waterways. Let’s discuss more Air transport benefits and drawbacks in this article.
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What is Air Transport? Advantages and Disadvantages of Air Transport 2022
The fastest and easiest way to move people or goods by aircrafts such as aeroplanes, the helicopter is Air transportation. Though it has some limitations like it can not be used for rural areas especially in India, where still some regions are undeveloped to use airways service means it’s not helpful for door to door service. Apart from this air transport is helpful in the movement of cargo and humans in the fastest way which makes it easy to connect globally to every part of the world which promotes economic growth around the world.
Some aircrafts widely used in defence mostly in every country across the world. Every nation has developed armed services which primarily look at aerial warfare. Some aircrafts used for defence are jet planes, helicopters, etc. These are helpful during natural calamities like floods, earthquakes etc.
Primarily the main objective of air transport is to not only move people easily to distant places faster but to also develop trade faster which boosts employment and help nations to grow. As air transport is rapid and sustainable which is its main advantage but it comes with a few disadvantages also. Let’s discuss some of its advantages and disadvantages.
Advantages of Air Transport
Here are some advantages of Air transport:
Fast speed: Air transport is capable of moving bulky cargo and hundreds of people very fast in any part of the world. Obviously, it is much faster than any mode of transportation like road transportation, rail transportation or water transportation.it is well used in nation emergencies due to its speed. In India, railways are majorly used by people for moving to any part of the country due to its economic service but nowadays people are moving towards airways for its fastest speed and people want to reach their destination as soon as possible .
Rapid service: Air transport is easy, dependable and definitely the fastest way to transport passengers and goods. It offers rapid and convenient service at a low cost . Air transport is the best way for the transport of ramble goods due to its fastest service.
Low infrastructure: Air transport travels totally on a natural path so it just requires very less investment for its maintenance. Apart from constructing airports from where air traffic is also controlled, there is no other infrastructure needed like making rail paths or several stations like in railways or in any other mode of transportation.
No physical barriers: As land routes have so many obstacles or barriers like divided regions need special permission every time which is not applicable while travelling by air. There are no obstructions like mountains, rivers or any other element which can affect its speed.it works on a direct route and hence it is faster than other modes of transport.
Defence service: Every country is very much reliant on airforce service. Nowadays wars are not only fought on land borders but the air force offers a much easy and fast way to reach the enemy and vanish their evil intentions without much loss. During natural calamities like earthquakes, floods etc. it plays a very vital role in saving the lives of people and providing them special service in bad times.
Security: Air transport provides quick and comfortable service with a very secure environment for people to travel around in any part of the world where other modes cannot reach. Travelling with very delicate or high-value goods over long distances is convenient through air transport.
Disadvantages of Air Transport
Here are some of its disadvantages:
Costly service: As compared to land transport, rail transport and water transport this is relatively more costly for its services. Passengers cannot travel frequently if they are not financially good. Although Air service offers not only costly business class seats it provides economical class also which is cheaper than business class but still, it is costlier than other modes of transport. It applies the same to cargo. Though it provides faster service than other modes which is great for trading air service goods are costly and need special permission.
Limited capacity: Air transport provides fast means of transportation but it has the drawback of the limited capacity of goods which is better in other modes. It is not good for bulky cargo and has limitations on the number of passengers travelling. Also, some kind of goods such as batteries, gases, fired solid and liquids etc.
Undependable and risky: Air transport travels in a natural path so it is totally dependent on the weather which makes it sometimes uncertain to travel in bad weather conditions such as fog, rain and snow etc. which causes cancellation of flights or diversion of its routes and makes it risky to travel.
Accident-prone: Compared to other modes air travel is always at high risk of accidents. There are more accidents on count while travelling by air transport. The reason can be bad weather, signal issues or machine parts failure which causes loss of people, crew or goods.
Requires Skill: There are trained people required to fly an aircraft and because of it air travel becomes a little costly due to limited crew.
Unfit for cheap and bulky goods: Since airways are costly due to numerous conditions, it becomes expensive to move cheap goods and also aircraft are small in size as compared to other modes so it’s difficult to load bulky cargo.
Comparison Table for Advantages and Disadvantages of Air Transport
| Advantages of air transport | Disadvantages of air transport |
| Fast speed of transport | Costlier than other modes |
| Rapid service facility | Limited capacity of people or goods can move |
| Low infrastructure required to establish this service | Undependable and risky since it depends on weather conditions |
| No physical barriers like land borders or river, mountains can affect its speed | Requires skill to fly or operate any aircraft |
| Aviation is very important in Defence service to protect any nation more easily from enemies | Unfit for cheap bulky goods since travel costs can be higher than the goods cost |
| It provides a safe and secure environment to travel by valuable goods | More accident-prone than other modes |
FAQ’s on Pros and Cons of Air Transport
Question 1.
How is Air transport more useful than other modes of transport?
Answer:
Air transport enables a convenient and fastest mode of moving people and cargo around any part of the world which is beneficial for the economical growth of any nation which is better than other modes of travelling.
Question 2.
What are the drawbacks of Air transport?
Answer:
Air transport comes with some drawbacks like it is more costly than other modes for moving people and cargo, especially goods that are cheap but its transportation charges become high in airways. There is risk in travelling by aircraft since it depends on weather conditions and sometimes unluckily there is loss of people, crew, and cargo.
Question 3.
What are the types of Air transport?
Answer:
There are many types of aircraft which are used for moving both passengers and cargo like aeroplanes, Helicopters, hot air balloons, blimps, gliders, jets, planes and rockets.