World pays dearly for airline boom

By SOPHIE HARES

SYDNEY - In Sydney Airport's crowded international terminal, passengers make last-minute passport checks or fret over toddlers in pushchairs as they wait in the snaking queue to check in for the 23-hour flight to London.

But few of the 400 passengers crammed on to each jumbo jet taking off over Botany Bay ever consider the environmental impact of their 17,000km intercontinental trip.

Passengers will consume at least 1600 meals in plastic containers, but each plane travelling to London will guzzle more than 200 tonnes of jet fuel and pump out more than 500 tonnes of carbon dioxide, as well as other greenhouse gases.

"Beneath the glamorous high-flying image of aviation is a grossly polluting industry," said Paul de Zylva, head of Friends of the Earth in London.

Environmentalists say airlines rate as one of the most polluting forms of transport, with 16,000 commercial jets producing more than 600 million tonnes of carbon dioxide every year.

Climate change, caused by greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide, is deemed by many experts to be the biggest long-term threat to mankind.

The United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change estimates aviation causes 3.5 per cent of man-made global warming and that figure could rise to 15 per cent by 2050.

Nasa scientists say condensation trails from jet exhausts create cirrus clouds that may trap heat rising from the earth's surface.

This could account for nearly all the warming over the United States between 1975 and 1994.

The International Air Transport Association, the body which represents the world's airlines, accepts that aircraft cause environmental damage.

"Every minute we can save in flight times has a positive impact on the environment and on our costs," said Iata spokesman Anthony Concil.

Despite the industry's heavy environmental toll, guidelines on international aircraft emissions were excluded from the Kyoto protocol on climate change and aviation fuel is tax-exempt.

Aerospace firms have made huge leaps forward, with commercial jets 70 per cent more fuel-efficient per passenger kilometre than they were 40 years ago, thanks to better engines, lighter materials and aerodynamic designs.

And cost-obsessed carriers are continuously searching for ways to use capacity better, find more direct flight paths and cut congestion in order to trim the hefty fuel bills which make up 25 per cent of airline operating costs.

Dirt cheap airfares, thanks to the runaway success of low-cost carriers, mean thousands more people are now taking to the skies.

"It's a catch-22 situation. Many developing countries want to promote tourism as a revenue source and a lot of no-frills airlines are appearing in Malaysia and other parts of Asia," said Gurmit Singh, of Malaysia's Centre of Environment Technology and Development.

The sheer growth of passenger volumes is likely to negate the benefits of future improvements, say environmentalists.

Simon Thomas, chairman of London-based environmental consultancy Trucost, estimates that technological improvements help trim emissions by around 1 per cent a year, a drop in the ocean when the aviation industry is forecasting 5 per cent annual traffic growth for the next two decades.

The aviation industry opposes any new green taxes, saying many airlines are still in recovery mode after the September 11 attacks.

Instead of curbing damaging emissions, new levies would only bump up fares and damage low-cost carriers in particular, say aviation groups.

But green initiatives such as global emissions trading schemes for airlines are gaining favour.

British Airways already takes part in emissions trading and budget airline EasyJet said it would support any Government moves towards an aviation emissions trading scheme.

- REUTERS