We are now enjoying the longest peacetime economic expansion in our history. This unprecedented economic achievement has made it possible for the President to propose an equally unprecedented public investment in transportation infrastructure, including aviation, as he did this year. Even without the threat of gridlock, we need to significantly improve our nation's aviation infrastructure because we know that aviation will be a driving force for global economic growth in the new century and the new millennium. Travel, combined with tourism, is already the world's largest industry. And the U.S. aerospace industry is already America's largest manufacturing exporter, employing more than two million people.
Aviation even plays a crucial role in the growth of e-commerce.
The growth of e-commerce is one of the reasons why we expect the value of cargo shipped by air to triple in value by 2015. Overnight delivery still requires planes, as well as trucks and highways, to move a product from the warehouse to your house. E-commerce will not only stimulate more air traffic, it will also provide us with new ways to simplify and speed up operations. Some of the most important features of our international aviation system architecture fall under the heading of political, governmental and regulatory policy. In the United States, airline deregulation has brought average fares down by one-third over the past 20 years.