Airlines buck EU emission trends

Sep 24, 2015

Over the past decade the cost of flying has raced ahead of inflation in the European Union, yet aviation has still been the fastest-growing transport sector.

An orgy of statistics released today by the European Commission reveals that air travel is now a third pricier than it was in 2005, as is road transport. Both modes are of course locked in to oil price fluctuations.

But while Europe’s miles covered by road have barely increased since 2005, air miles have grown by almost 10 per cent, and by 25 per cent since 2000 – the quickest expansion of any transport sector.

Leading the way within Europe are its busiest city pairs – Toulouse-Paris CDG, Barcelona-Madrid and Nice-Paris – while London Heathrow-New York FK and Heathrow-Dubai are the top international connections.

All the extra RPKs mean a bigger greenhouse gas (GHG) footprint: Aviation’s share of total EU transport emissions had risen from nine per cent in 1990 to 13 per cent by 2012.

The airlines’ larger share persists today and is partly due to cleaner cars, the biggest emitters, but it’s mainly been down to the huge volumes of traffic generated by low-cost carriers.

Between 2000 and 2013 Ryanair and easyJet added about a third more traffic than Lufthansa, Air France and British Airways combined.

This leaves aviation as the problem child, for while the EU has cut its total GHG emissions by 18 per cent since 1990, aviation’s have rocketed ahead by 80 per cent, compared with 20 per cent for the wider transport sector.

One might expect the eco-conscious EU to have responded with fuel and other environmental taxes, but the data show that these levies’ share of European GDP has barely budged since 1995.

However, the commission’s tax figures only cover transport as a whole. Airlines would no doubt argue that their growth has been met with ferocious taxation.