• Shame for flying takes over

    From Aviation HQ@2:292/854 to All on Fri Dec 20 09:38:05 2019
    Shame for flying, the phenomenon where people avoid the plane for ecological reasons, is becoming harder and harder. In Germany, Europe's largest airline market, there were 12 percent fewer travelers on domestic flights in November than the year before, the Bloomberg news agency learned. It is already the fourth monthly fall in a row, while the number of passengers on German railways is at a record level. As a result, something similar appears to be happening in Germany as in Sweden, where the shame movement (or flygskam) originates and where climate activist Greta Thunberg comes from. There too, many travelers exchanged the plane for the train for the train.

    For airlines, flying shame is gradually becoming a problem. Brian Pearce, chief economist of the international aviation umbrella IATA, said in October that the phenomenon "can be a factor that will slow growth in the future." Research by the Swiss bank UBS among six thousand Western travelers showed that one in five consciously took the plane less often. If that trend continues, the growth of the aviation sector could halve. According to Reuters, the growth in air traffic in Europe would still be 1.5 percent per year. That is half the forecast that aircraft manufacturer Airbus has in mind.

    Airlines are not overjoyed with the phenomenon. Carsten Spohr, CEO of the German aviation giant Lufthansa, called the environmental concerns against his sector "fake news" last month, the aviation website Simple Flying reported. "Our sector accounts for 2.8 percent of global CO2 emissions," Spohr said at an IATA conference. "As I asked before, what about the other 97.2 percent? Do they do so much good for society as we do? Do they reduce their emissions as much as we do? "

    "You should not see airlines as a symbol of climate change. That is
    fake news "Carsten Spohr Ceo Lufthansa

    The new European Commission is aiming for a kerosene tax in the context of its Green Deal. According to the IATA, such a tax will prevent airlines from making the necessary investments to become more ecological. Ryanair CEO Michael O'Leary already called the intention "something that was dreamed together in Brussels, or made up by cyclists in the Netherlands".

    Experts, however, expect that the environmental impact of aviation will increase sharply, even though aircraft are becoming increasingly energy efficient, as the volume of air traffic grows. Domestic flights may count on less interest, but the number of passengers on long-haul flights does not decrease. In addition, air traffic is rapidly increasing in emerging countries such as China. This year's European Commission report expects global emissions from the sector to increase by 21% to around 200 million tonnes even with significant technological advances by 2040.

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