To understand what was in the minds of those who conceived and developed economic regulations for air transport, a good place to start is the Second World War.

Chicago

The aviation industry was experiencing its second period of very rapid technological development, the first such period having occurred during World War I. In 1944, it was clear that aviation would play a much bigger role during peacetime after the war, than it had done before the war. The tide of the war had turned and there was a sense that it would soon be over (The History Place, 2014).

The minds of world leaders began to focus on post-war matters. The world had been through two wars in close succession and there was a determination that this cycle should not be repeated. In his ‘State of the Union’ message to congress, on 11 January 1944, President Roosevelt said “We are united in determination that this war shall not be followed by another interim which leads to new disaster- that we shall not repeat the tragic errors of ostrich isolationism” (Peters G and Woolley J, 2014).

In November of that year, the United States took a very practical step to address isolationism. It convened a meeting at Chicago to discuss post-war aviation. Delegates from 52 nations attended and discussed the challenges facing international civil aviation. The conference lasted longer than expected but, in the end, it achieved two things: an international agreement, referred to as the Chicago Convention; and, a new organisation, the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) to oversee international civil aviation (ICAO, 2014).