Monday, March 20, 2006
Low cost airlines and the environment
The European Low Fares Airline Association (ELFAA) a body comprised of easyJet, flybe, Hapag-Lloyd Express, Norwegian, Ryanair, Sky Europe, Sterling, Sverige Flyg, Transavia and Wizz Air has produced a report in response to the European Union Emissions Trading Scheme (EUETS). So far two budget airlines, easyJet and flybe have made their own responses to the criticism that airlines, in particular low fare airlines are the biggest threat to the environment. The report produced by Frontier Economics points out that airlines in Europe produce only 4% of the carbon dioxide European Union's (EU) fifteen members and predict that it will still only be 5% by 2030 assuming there are 25 EU members by then. What they don't pint out is that the increase to 5% is a 25% increase in CO2 at a time when the world needs to be reducing emissions. They feel aggrieved as they believe bigger polluters are not getting the same attention.
The make the point that the low cost airlines are the least damaging to the environment of all the airlines as they operate new fuel efficient aircraft with very high load factors. They believe that the EUETS must carefully consider how to implement emissions trading so that airlines running old aircraft with poor load factors are not rewarded with big emissions quotas based on historical usage. The low cost airlines are in favour of an emissions trading scheme if it rewards moves to further improve fuel efficiency. My view is that the rising cost of aviation fuel may achieve many of the goals of the EUETS before the scheme starts to influence airlines.
The make the point that the low cost airlines are the least damaging to the environment of all the airlines as they operate new fuel efficient aircraft with very high load factors. They believe that the EUETS must carefully consider how to implement emissions trading so that airlines running old aircraft with poor load factors are not rewarded with big emissions quotas based on historical usage. The low cost airlines are in favour of an emissions trading scheme if it rewards moves to further improve fuel efficiency. My view is that the rising cost of aviation fuel may achieve many of the goals of the EUETS before the scheme starts to influence airlines.
