Living with diabetes; will take to the skies

Besides death and taxes, there are currently two other certainties in life. Firstly, it is known that our evolutionary wanderlust knows no boundaries and that the number of travellers will continuously increase. Hans Christian Anderson famously said that ‘To travel is to live.’ An estimated 4 billion people will take to the skies in 2018, with more than 1.5 billion crossing international boundaries. Secondly the number of humans living with diabetes is also increasing. It thus is safe to say that an increasing number of people living with diabetes will travel, reflecting global patterns. The International Air Transport Association (IATA, 2016) predicts that global air passengers will rise to over 7 billion annually by 2035 at current growth rates, and to over 10 billion if current regulations are relaxed. Even if there is a tightening in flight and border crossing regulations, the number will still be close to 6 billion.