Record-breaking aviator David Hempleman-Adams has confidently predicted that the airline and travel business will prosper and continue…
Record-breaking aviator David Hempleman-Adams has confidently predicted that the airline and travel business will prosper and continue expanding into new frontiers.
“This industry will go from strength to strength over the next five, 10 years and I cannot see an end to it for a further century,” he said yesterday.
The man who created his own history by crossing the Atlantic solo in an open wicker basket last September paid tribute to the pioneering powered-flight Wright Brothers as he opened World Travel Market at London`s ExCel yesterday (Monday).
He was sad at the “demise of supersonic Concorde” – which inspired him to become an adventurer as a “goggle -eyed 13 year old “-but full of optimism for the industry`s changing face and future.
“I have three daughters and they have a different and natural attitude to travel,” he added. “Thanks to the advent of the budget, low-cost airlines he took the three of them to Venice for £100 return.
“They are used to travel. It`s as though they are going to the local shops. The other day my eight- year- old Amelia said `Let`s go to Rome for the weekend.` “This new generation will travel further and further and more often than ever before.
“I saw the maiden flight of Concorde when it took off from Filton at Bristol and it was awe-inspiring. I was playing football and suddenly we stood open-mouthed at this beautiful, beautiful sight.”
Five years ago Hempleman-Adams, 47, a hobby pilot, flew Concorde through a simulator and he has also been a passenger on a New York flight. He has a fixed-wing licence as well as his balloonist credentials.
“I had a major scare on my Atlantic balloon crossing and believed I was going to come down 15,000ft into the ocean. I contacted my base and after a while they worked it out that the boom from Concorde hitting the balloon had caused the problem,” he recalled.
Without Concorde he anticipates new trends in luxury. “Beds that fold into chairs, rather than the other way around,” he said. “British Airways and Virgin pilots radioed me during my solo trip and asked `What are you eating down there?` I told them ginger biscuits and said: `How about you?` They replied `Lobster and caviar!`
“I wanted to experience the Jules Verne era – type experience, even though it was 20 degrees below.” He is a veteran of 30 long-haul commercial flights and left for Nepal soon after his speech.
“We have seen a huge surge in airlines and travel and pushing out new horizons, to the corners of the globe and even stretching to tourism in Space. I encourage and endorse that so long as it is properly managed.”
He added: “This is a remarkable anniversary year. There was the conquering of Everest 50 years ago , a new beginning and birth of tourism. Then the visionary Wright brothers achieved their landmark 100 years on December 17, ahead of their competitors because of their lightweight alloy engine development.”
Hempleman-Adams, MBE, OBE, has achieved the explorers` grand slam – scaling the highest mountains in each of the continents and reaching both magnetic and geographic North and South Poles. He also became the only person to reach both magnetic Poles in the same year.
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