Cheaper tickets, more destinations and better aircraft: Can we really complain?

Last week we looked six ways air travel is worse than it used to be. But flying in 2017 is not all bad news.

Misty-eyed nostalgia for the service, seats, the light-over-easy security checks of two decades ago is all very well but it's not accurate. We've come a long way since then, and there are quite a few ways air travel has improved. Here are 10.

More carriers

In the past few years, airlines such as Emirates and Singapore Airlines have introduced new routes, connecting New Zealanders to the world like never before. On Waitangi Day, Qatar Airways' first Doha to Auckland flight will land, and claim the title of the world's longest nonstop route.

These new carriers have ushered in a new era in travel with more airline hubs and routes to choose from, and competition that keeps prices low.

Ticket pricing

In the 90s, the cheapest one-way ticket to Europe would cost more than $2000. For an employee on the average weekly wage that represented about three weeks' full-time work.

Today you can buy that same air ticket for less than $1600. Next time the meal trolley rumbles down the aisle and the hostie flings you an eggplant parmigiana with the taste and consistency of warm cardboard you might ponder your good fortune.

Inflight entertainment

REUTERS

Does anyone remember the days when there was one television screen for several rows?

The first seat-back screen was a tiny 2.7 inch LCD that airlines rolled out in 1988, but only in their first-class cabins. A decade later seat-back screens had become standard on the major carriers across all classes but screens were smaller than the modern touch-screen, seat-back screen of 2017, with a more restricted choice than the personal on-demand videos, television and games and flight maps that today's flyer expects.

Although the inflight entertainment system might distract you from the fact that your body is bent like a pretzel, there are downsides. One is having to put up with the guy in the next seat LOLing very hard while watching Tropic Thunder.

Smoking

123RF

Not everyone obeys the "no smoking" rule on flights.

Something not to miss. In the bad old days planes stank, and smoking was the reason. Smokers were usually quarantined but while the air conditioning system filtered the smoke it also distributed the odour evenly around the cabin.

On flights to foreign parts you got to smell some of the exotic fragrances that the rest of the world sucks into its lungs - clove-scented kretek in Indonesia, Double Happiness in China, Gauloises in France.

If you happened to be a non-smoker seated adjacent to the smoking section coughing was not optional. The smoke began to clear in the mid-1990s when airlines around the world were banning smoking.

123RF

Airlines started banning smoking on flights in the 1990s.

In 2000, when President Bill Clinton signed legislation that prohibited smoking on every flight into and out of the US it was game over. Well, almost. Amy Winehouse once spent half of a London to Glasgow flight smoking in the loo while flight crew banged on the door.

Read more:
* Plane seat sizes, extra charges, overhead bin fights: How flying is worse than it used to be
* Opinion: Plane passengers have every right to recline their seat on a flight
* Unusual and record-breaking planes: Six incredible planes you'll never fly on 

Business is better

Business class is better than ever.

It's better than ever at the pointy end. Fly with a premium airline and you can expect a cushy lounge with great food, nice wines and expedited immigration clearance among the perks .

On a long-haul business class flight aboard a legacy carrier your seat converts to a lie-flat bed, you get a large video screen, noise cancelling headphones, charger ports, flexible lighting options and privacy screens. All of which makes the first class of 1997 so yesterday, and the reason why many airlines have scuttled their first-class cabins.

Better aircraft

The new generation of aircraft exemplified by Boeing's 787 Dreamliner and the Airbus A350 XWB are constructed extensively from Carbon Fibre Reinforced Polymer. CFRP doesn't corrode or suffer from fatigue to the same extent as a traditional aluminium fuselage and that allows the cabin to tolerate higher pressure.

In effect, you're subject to pressure about 2000 feet lower than in an older style airliner, which means more oxygen in your lungs, more moisture in the air and a more comfortable flight.

Inflight Wi-Fi

123RF

In-flight Wi-Fi is becoming more common.

Wi-Fi first became available on commercial aircraft a little over a decade ago, today it's expected that you can log in to the internet when you fly with a leading carrier.

Airlines such as Emirates use an network of satellites to deliver inflight Wi-Fi around the globe. British Airways plans to introduce high speed satellite-delivered 2Ku Wi-Fi to many of its aircraft operating on international routes this year.

Baggage allowance

Back then, as an economy flyer, 20kgs of checked-in luggage was all you got, and just one bag. Today it's 30kgs when you fly with the premier Asian carriers and the big three Gulf State carriers, 23 kg on many others.

Safety

We're safer in the skies than ever before, and getting safer all the time. According to the Aviation Safety Network, 258 people died in crashes aboard commercial aircraft capable of carrying 14 or more passengers in 2016. That's one fatality for every 13.3 million passengers who flew that year. Twenty years before that figure was 1843 deaths, or one for every 753,000 passengers.

As a ratio of deaths against the number of passengers, that makes 2016 the safest year on record. Neither 2016 nor 1996 were exceptional. Both follow the trend which has seen relatively fewer passenger fatalities year by year.

Marathon runners

New generation aircraft are shrinking the world with longer non-stop flights. Current record holder is Air India's 15,300 km marathon between Delhi and San Francisco followed by Emirates' 14,193 km service between Dubai and Auckland. Qantas is in third spot with its 13,800km Sydney-Dallas flights.

Toward the end of 2016 Qantas announced a non-stop Perth to London service to commence in March 2018, the first no-stops commercial flight between Australia and London. Whether you want to spend 14-plus hours on the same flight is another question, and you do have other choices.

This is an edited version of Michael Gebicki's traveller.com.au story.