The guidance given by the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry to the Civil Aviation Authority begins with a very important sentence—though some might regard it as a truism. It says that civil air transport exists by serving the public. As it happens, it was I who wrote those words and perhaps you will permit me to paraphrase them in everyday language, rather than the language of White Papers.

Civil air transport is about people. It is about the people who fly in aeroplanes as passengers, or who would like to do so if they could afford it. It is about the people who work for airlines, whether they be on the flight deck or in the cabin or on the ground. It is about the people who run airlines, whether they are the chairman of public corporations like Henry Marking or the founders of independent airlines like Adam Thomson or Freddy Laker. And finally it is about the people who regulate airlines; those who lay down the grant strategy like the members of the Edwards Committee and those who say you may or you may not.