International flight
An international flight is a form of commercial flight within civil aviation where the departure and the arrival take place in different countries.[1]
An important difference between international and domestic flights is that, before boarding the aircraft, passengers must undergo migration formalities and, when arriving to the destination airport, they must undergo both immigration and customs formalities.
Airports serving international flights are known as international airports.
Origins
One of the first flights between two countries was on January 7, 1785, when Jean-Pierre Blanchard and John Jeffries crossed the English Channel in a balloon.[2] It took more than a century for the first heavier-than-air object to repeat this prowess: Louis Blériot crossed the Channel on July 25, 1909,[3] winning a Daily Mail prize of £1,000.[4]
Aviation technology developed during World War I and soon came the development of international commercial flights in what is known as the Golden Age of Aviation; there was a combination of aircraft types which included airships and airplanes. The first airline was Chalk's Ocean Airways, established 1917, which operated scheduled seaplane services from Florida to the Bahamas. The first regular international service in the world was covered by the British Aircraft Transport and Travel, from Hounslow Heath Aerodrome to Le Bourget.
After World War II, international commercial flights were regulated by the creation of the International Air Transport Association and the International Civil Aviation Organization.
Nowadays, many international flights are also non-stop flights.
See also
- Airliner
- Bilateral air transport agreement
- Commercial aviation
- Convention on International Civil Aviation
- Domestic flight
- IATA
- ICAO
References
- ↑ "International flight". WordNet Search 3.0. Retrieved 2013-02-27.
- ↑ "Boston's first aeronaut". The New York Times. July 10, 1885.
- ↑ "Blériot Tells of his Flight". The New York Times. July 26, 1909. Retrieved January 21, 2013.
- ↑ "The New 'Daily Mail' Prizes". Flight 5 (223): 393. April 5, 1913.