International flight

An international flight is a form of commercial flight within civil aviation where the departure and the arrival take place in different countries.^[1]

Regular international passenger air service began in August 1919 with a flight going from London, England to Paris, France. The journey was organized and operated by the firm Air Transport & Travel Ltd (AT&T), which would later serve as a forerunner of British Airways (BA). Besides ferrying travelers, the flights, which occurred daily, also transported mail and parcels. The De Havilland DH4A aircraft were designed for combat during the First World War but saw extensive later use. Looking back, historical writer Paul Jarvis has commented that during the "very early days it was very much just about persuading people to fly at all" given that "quite a lot of people" considered aviation as a whole to be "just a passing fad." The aftermath of the Second World War brought about widespread cultural changes in multiple nations that resulted in international flights becoming embraced by large populations.^[2]

An important difference between international and domestic flights is that, before boarding the aircraft, passengers must undergo migration formalities and, when arriving to the destination airport, they must undergo both immigration and customs formalities. Exceptions exist in situations such as when the departure and arrival countries are members of the same diplomatically organized free travel area, an example being the Schengen Area within Europe. Said group of traveling agreements resulted from the 1985 Schengen Agreement and the 1990 Schengen Convention, both matters of international law being signed in Luxembourg.

Airports serving international flights are known as international airports. For example, King Fahd International Airport within the Dammam metropolis of Saudi Arabia has the largest landmass of any airport in the world, with the complex encompassing over three-hundred square miles of territory. By comparison, the Middle Eastern nation of Bahrain is actually smaller.^[3] These international facilities typically are of a far greater size than standard airports, usually including expanded amenities such as areas with bookshops, lounges, and restaurants. Experiences not normally associated with airports such as banks providing financial services may be offered to travelers in such complexes.