Manchester airport goes 'carbon neutral'... ish

By Richard on 16/11/2007
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Greenwash chart

Pity the bright spark who thought this one up. Manchester Airport has caught the greenwash bug, and announced grand plans to be carbon neutral by 2015. The catch? It's expanding flights by 50% and, quelle surprise, not including emissions from flights in in magic calculations.

Its "ambitious plans" involve using renewable energy to power the terminal, swapping some lightbulbs about and, most excitingly, "All toilets in the terminals will be fitted with movement sensors so the lights go out when not in use"!

Ruth Kelly has cake, eats it

By Richard on 15/11/2007
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Plane cake

Yesterday Ruth Kelly appeared at an aviation conference, attended by the great and good of the aviation industry. She regaled them all with a speech which called for... well, business as usual really, with a dash of greenwash.

Kelly has totally bought the premise that economic growth and environmental salvation are intrinsically linked. Sadly this is utter tosh: our society is only able to produce goods and services at the rate it does because of our wanton disregard for the environment. As far as aviation is concerned, you have to ask who you trust more: the Tyndall Centre for Climate Change research (prognosis: aviation expansion cannot co-exist with climate change targets) or Rod Eddington, former head of British Airways (motto: keep on flyin').

The Flying Scotsman

By Joss on 14/11/2007

The train pulled out of St Pancras International exactly on time. I've got a glass of champagne and am gliding smoothly through Kent at 186 mph. It's shiny and comfortable and fantastic. But Gordon Brown must be worried. The city of Nice is now closer to Westminster than Kirkcaldy! This little piece of continental bliss extending over from France means that a Parisian can now be at Luton airport more quickly than a Londoner can get to Charles de Gaulle airport by air.

Eurostar is clearly eroding our Britishness and could very well undermine our position as the world's top flyers. Furthermore, the only decent train route in Britain has to suffer the humiliation of having one end in France. I'm surprised Gordon didn't put a stop to it.

Airline websites mislead public

By Richard on 14/11/2007
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O'Leary cuddling a plane

Hot on the heels of the Advertising Standards Agency's ruling on Ryanair, the European Commission has found that at least 200 airlines' websites are "misleading" the public.

According to the Commission, common issues include prices on the home page that did not include taxes and charges, 'free' flights that were not free and compulsory purchase of insurance attached to an offer.

BA in 'ghost planes' airfix

By Richard on 13/11/2007
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BA airfix

"British Airways is committed to improving its environmental performance, and reducing the adverse impacts of its activities on the global and local environment." So says their website, which lauds the company's environmental record in "improving fuel efficiency and developing engagement with customers".

Pity that no one told their transatlantic division; it seems they've been caught flying empty planes between North America and the UK, in order to keep their landing slots at Heathrow open. Neither is it the first time this has happened - back in March British Mediteranean Airways (a franchise of BA) was sending jets between Heathrow and Cardiff to keep slots open.

Frankly, it's no wonder that this sort of madness occurs, when fuel is untaxed and planes so cheap to run. It just goes to show that for the aviation industry, when it comes to choosing between the environment and profit margins, those pound signs are always going to come out on top.

Fuel protests - reactionary rioting

By Richard on 12/11/2007
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Duel poster

Back in February of this year I broke off discussing aviation to talk about how extending the congestion charge zone was drawing protest from those affected by the new charge. I said at the time that "If you want to live a lifestyle which relies on excessive consumption of fossil fuels, then expect to pay" - a not unreasonable suggestion, given that our CO2 emissions are causing all sorts of climatalogical problems.

Almost a year later, and rising fuel prices have brought out the spectre of fuel protests and blockades. Last time the hauliers forced the Government to scrap the fuel duty escalator, which deliberately pushed petrol above the rise of inflation to check rising car use and fuel consumption. As the BBC noted in 2003, removing the escalator made sure that, contrary to popular belief, the real costs of driving continued to fall - particularly in relation to public transport costs.