The title of this paper may suggest that it sets out to bring the report of the Edwards Committee up-to-date. That would be an interesting and challenging task; but although some aspects of the Committee's conclusions will be considered in the light of more recent experience, I have no intention of attempting to perform, in the course of an evening, something which a number of well-qualified men, ably served by an experienced secretariat, required 18 months to complete. Nevertheless, because air transport is a dynamic industry in which change is commonplace, even the work of the Edwards Committee has to some extent been overtaken by events. Its principal recommendations have been implemented, wholly or in part, and in turn, this has set the scene for further change so far as British civil aviation is concerned. Despite this apparent emphasis on change, the industry needs stability. Sometimes stability is confused with stagnation—so let me make it clear that what is required is stability accompanied by sufficient flexibility not only to reflect change but to influence change when this is necessary.

In many ways the scene for the 1970s was set by the events of the previous decade. If there were time it might be interesting to consider some of the more important factors which have influenced the past decade, but the Edwards Committee itself examined much of the evidence of the 1960s in reaching its conclusions.