NOTHING BUT GREEN SKIES
Taking the heat for their role in global pollution, airlines are trying to clean
up their act, notes PATA President Emeritus Lakshman Ratnapala.

he Bishop of London says it’s a sin to fly on holidays. This admonition comes in the wake of global concerns about the airline industry’s apparent contribution to global warming. A British newspaper has gone to the extent of saying that our planet is in a suicide pact with aviation. According to the UN, airlines produce two per cent of the planet’s carbon-dioxide emissions and the expansion of air travel will raise that figure to three per cent by 2050. In the UK, the Chancellor of the Exchequer has slapped an air-passenger duty expected to generate one billion UK Pounds to offset the aviation industry’s adverse impact on the environment. The 27-member EU is requiring airlines from EU nations to join in a carbon-trading scheme by 2011. Eventually, all airlines that fly to EU countries will have to participate in the scheme to retain their landing rights.

Hounded by politicians, environmentalists and ordinary citizens alike, the environment has now become the airline industry’s top priority – after safety. The world’s airlines recently announced a very lofty goal: slash jetliner greenhouse-gas emissions until, 50 years from now, airlines generate no air pollution at all. Zero carbon emission is no doubt a utopian goal, but worth aiming for – even if no one is quite sure how to do it. It will require totally new technology – although some experts say it is a pipe dream no matter what the technology.

Climate change dominated this year’s annual meeting of the International Air Transport Association (IATA) – where talk of CO₂, carbon footprints, emissions trading, alternative fuels, the threat of increased regulation and taxation was everywhere. Giovanni Bisignani, the Director-General and CEO of IATA, admitted that ‘going green’ won’t be easy, but insists that it can be done if governments fund alternative-fuel research, manufacturers build cleaner-burning engines, airports improve tangled air-traffic control systems and airlines push harder for clean technology.

The airline industry is an important part of the global economy, supporting US$ 2.9 trillion in economic activity and providing 29 million jobs. More people than ever are flying – 2.2 billion people in 2006, up from nine million in 1945. But the push for air transport to become an industry that does not pollute comes at a sensitive time. The aviation industry slumped badly following the terrorist attacks of September 2001 and recessions in several nations. The world’s airlines lost US $ 45 billion from 2001 through 2006. Predictions are that recovering airlines will turn a slim profit of US$ 5 billion this year.

In reality, the airlines are a small part of the global climate-change problem when one compares the two per cent of global carbon emissions attributed to airlines, with 18 per cent attributed to the auto industry, and 35 per cent to electricity and heating. Even cattle production is said to produce more carbon emissions, with a pollution level of nine per cent. Apparently, the cows of Europe produce more emissions than the airline industry does! In fact, airlines were working on fuel efficiency and reducing emissions long before Kyoto.

Airlines have reduced aircraft noise by 75 per cent since 1977 and burn 70 per cent less fuel per mile than in 1967. The fuel efficiency of modern aircraft is 3.5 litres per 10 passenger kilometres. And the Airbus A380 and Boeing B787 will take that to below three litres – better than any hybrid car in the market today. Moreover, the billions of dollars being invested in new aircraft will drive a further 25 per cent improvement in global fuel efficiency by 2020.

These achievements are still not enough and the airline industry needs to catch up fast with other industries where, for instance, the auto industry is talking about a carbon-neutral future, gas and oil companies are pushing green business as an opportunity, and GE has green at the heart of its corporate strategy. The reality is that globally, industry is shifting gears on the environment issue and making it a core business principle.