In his April 28 Point of View piece "Air travel: From magical to maddening," Bob Kochersberger displayed a nostalgic desire for air travel of a bygone era and ignored some realities of air transportation today.

According to U.S. DOT data, in 1978, there were 274 million passenger enplanements on five million departures. Passengers paid $8.49 to fly one mile (yield). By 2006, passenger enplanements increased to 744 million and departures doubled to 11 million. Meanwhile, real yield declined to $3.98. DOT reports list a grand total of 800 filed complaints in all of February 2008. Finally, in the years 1970 to 2006, there were 58 fatal air events among the 143 million flights on U.S. and Canadian airlines.

Airline travel has become a commodity. Airlines compete on price and schedule, and ancillary items like food are largely things of the past. There is no more magic -- instead 744 million enplanements occur every year that take a person from point A to point B in safety and at a very low cost.

Overall individual productivity and leisure travel have increased, and air travel for the masses has been accomplished. Let's not wish for the old days.

Henry E. Felder, Ph.D.

Durham