Passenger transport in the EU in selected transport sectors

Transport is a branch of material production of great importance to the economy of every country. It supports material production, non-productive activities, and satisfies specific needs of the population. Transport enables cooperation and specialization of material production, or in other words, the social division of labor. It is an essential condition for any mass-scale production and for the existence of a commodity market and a market economy.Analyzing the specific features of transport by sector, such as: transport costs, transport time, transport susceptibility, transport accessibility, or average transport distance, it should be stated that maritime transport is one of the cheapest alternatives for transporting cargo and passengers, while additionally, the infrastructure of waterways is relatively cheap compared to other branches of transport.
Maritime transport plays a similar role in the transport of goods as air transport does in international passenger transport. It is the primary branch of transport serving international trade. For island nations such as Japan, Great Britain, Australia, Indonesia, and the Philippines, sea transport accounts for almost 100% of their total trade. Furthermore, this branch of transport also dominates in serving the international trade of countries exporting large quantities of mineral raw materials and most developing countries.
Favorable prospects in the maritime transport market, caused among other things by the dynamic economic development of Asia and the growth of trade between Japan and its Asian partners, suggest a doubling of the volume of cargo transported by sea within the next 15 years.
The global economic crisis, which began with the collapse of the mortgage market and the fall of Lehman Brothers bank in the autumn of 2008 in the United States, caused an unprecedented collapse in the growth of the entire global economy, the largest since the end of World War II. By the end of 2008, the financial crisis had turned into a global crisis. (…)

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