Qantas CEO Alan Joyce thinks it is a shame that "flying shame" is increasingly being promoted in Europe. The Australian thinks that this leads to economic decline and makes little contribution to the fight against climate change.

The concept of "flying shame" implies that people should be ashamed to take the plane because this would contribute to global warming. It was conceived in Sweden, but is now rapidly gaining popularity in Europe and slowly beyond.

"Consider the impact this will have on the global economy, on trade, on jobs, on tourism and on connecting more isolated areas such as Australia with the rest of the world," said Joyce.

"The focus should not be on stopping flying, but on how we reduce the impact of flying". According to the top executive, aviation is already doing a lot about this, such as the use of biofuels and the use of more efficient aircraft, but many people do not know that.

"Airlines worldwide strive to halve CO2 emissions in 2050 compared to 2005. From 2021, we will be the first industry in the world to grow in a CO2-neutral manner on international flights."

At a conference in Sydney earlier this week, Joyce put it even more clearly: "We don't want to go back to a world without aviation. We must prevent us from throwing the child away with the bath water, because those connections are very important for the economy."

Lufthansa CEO Carsten Spohr recently said something similar. According to him, globalization would not have been possible without aviation. And because flying connects people, Spohr believes it contributes to world peace.

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* Origin: AVIATION ECHO HQ (2:292/854)