respond to global issues. It is a source of openness to the world, of harmonisation of relations between people, of business, of happiness, of reunion: civil aviation is more and more involved every day in the fulfilment of millions of people, less and less noisy, more and more comfortable, safe and indispen- sable. So it's incredible to see how some Western countries (which produce fantastic Airbus, which they are happy to sell to the whole world) are put- ting it on trial. Do you have to be hypocritical, blasé or ill-informed to believe that flying is an unnatural act that des- troys the planet more than any other everyday act? Civil aviation pollutes far less than the internet and the production of smartphones. Should we stop it all? Those who wilfully can't see beyond the end of their noses are spreading false ideas that are gai- ning ground, relayed by media more concerned with visibility than fair-mindedness, and they are proposing that we should suddenly do without air- craft, instead of providing preferential funding for other technologies that would enable us to make rapid progress.
zheim airport for some years now. This airport had been struggling to survive since the arrival of the TGV and the virtual disappearance of its main rai- son d'être, as envisaged by the former air monopo- ly: flights between Alsace and Paris. This direct Volotea flight from Strasbourg to Nice, fully booked on a weekday, is proof if proof were needed of the real importan- ce of the aviation industry in people's daily lives. So off to Nice, then Monaco for the fourteenth edi- tion of APG World Connect. It's a wonderful oppor- tunity to meet the many professionals from the industry who will be there, and (for once) confide in us the intimate secrets of their attachment to air- craft, their memories and the importance of air tra- vel in their private lives. We'll go from surprise to surprise, discovering the extent to which the testi- monies converge towards this obvious fact: air transport is fundamental to mankind today. We begin with Jean-Louis Baroux, Chairman of World Connect and founder of APG (Air Promotion Group), the world's leading network of airline representatives.
So here we are on board a Volotea aircraft. Volotea which is helping to revitalise the Strasbourg Ent-
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