The data in this paper are derived from the European Intercity Transport Study carried out between 1973 and 1976 jointly by the OECD, the ECMT and the EEC, with the direct participation of 12 European governments. The Study report was completed in the second half of 1976 and, though not yet published, has been circulated fairly widely.

The subject of this paper touches on just one aspect of the European Study, namely the competition between air transport and other means of transport for passenger traffic in Europe. Since the interest of the paper lies in air traffic it is only concerned with long-distance travel. The European Study limited its attention to trips of over 80 km, straight line distance, which clearly includes all air trips.

The principal modes of transport which compete with air for passenger trips within Europe are car, train and bus. Other modes account for less than 2% of long-distance trips, and they appear to be about equally divided between goods vehicles and motorcycles, but these modes will be ignored in this paper. Ferries are also used, of course, for sea crossings but they are treated for analytical purposes as links in the road and rail networks.