Few industries have undergone so much change or have been subjected to so much pressure in such a short space of time as the air transport industry. In just 100 years, this activity has gone from being a means of transport for a minority and a handful of adventurers to becoming a cutting edge sector which transported 2,350 million passengers last year.

Within this complex transport system, the airline companies play an important role. Like the railways, they started off in the public sector but today they are mostly private companies that compete against each other to capture new customers and markets and they generate thousands of jobs, both directly and indirectly.

Having sold out the first edition, the aeronautical engineer and journalist Arturo de Benito has revised and updated the content and is once again offering people the chance to read this work which, using accessible and informative language, introduces us to the history and development of these companies that strive to achieve profitability and customer satisfaction in an increasingly competitive market.

Publication index:

1. A brief history of the World's Airlines
Pioneer companies
Between Two World Wars
The Era of the Jet Engine
The Supersonic Experiment
Mass transport
2. The sector as it is today
Airlines today
Free market and competition
The economic crunch
3. Airline Companies in Spain
Before the Civil War
The monopoly years
In the European Union
4. Organisation and operation of an Airline
The business structure
The commercial services
Production
Added services
Vertical and horizontal integration
5. The future of Airlines
Changes in the Business Model
Low cost companies
Concentration of the sector
Sustainable air transport
6. Annexes:
Principal Organisations of Airlines
World Airlines in 2007