The aero band is like the police and fire bands-if you're tuning across
the band at random you'll be unlikely to hear anything unless you're
near a major airport. This is because the aero, police, and fire bands
are "point to point" transmissions

That's what I thought he meant at firsst, also. The VHF aircraft band.

However, I now think he was talking about the shortwave aircraft bands.

Those do supposedly propagate worldwide.