Century in review
The first four years of the 2000s have been a trial for aviation.

The first four years of the 2000s have been a trial for aviation. While the decade got off to a heady start in 2000 with the high times of the late-1990s boom still going strong, by the spring of 2001 the industry’s fortunes were taking a southerly course. Few acknowledged that the good times were souring until the repercussions of September 11 made their mark, but the decline of civil aviation’s fortunes had begun a good few months before that darkest of days.

As we enter the last month of the first century of manned, powered flight, civil aviation is showing glimmerings of recovery after weathering skies perilous both economically and literally, times whose hard edge is still widely identified as September 11.