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How to make flying more enjoyable and cleaner

Old 06-21-2007, 03:23 PM
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Default How to make flying more enjoyable and cleaner

A recent article I came across in the Economist which I found intriguing:

Trouble in the control tower


Jun 14th 2007
From The Economist print edition

It would be surprisingly easy for governments to make flying more enjoyable and cleaner

THIS looks like being another miserable summer for air travellers. Delays in America last year were the worst ever and could this year break even that grim record. America's air-transport system is facing gridlock. More than 1 billion passengers are flying in the rest of the world—and complaining more loudly than ever. Airports will only become more congested and aircraft fuller as passenger numbers worldwide grow from 2 billion a year to 2.5 billion by 2010. Sad to say, flying anywhere can be horrible, nowadays.

Nor is air travel doing much good to the environment. Although aviation accounts for only around 2% of man-made carbon-dioxide (CO2) emissions, that share is growing rapidly. The harm could be amplified by the effects of other emissions from jet-engines at high altitude.

Airlines are starting to face up to their environmental responsibilities. This month Giovanni Bisignani, boss of the International Air Transport Association, which speaks for most of the world's big airlines, said that “a growing carbon footprint is no longer politically acceptable.” Air transport, he added, should strive to become a zero-emissions industry.

That is a vision for 50 years or more ahead. Yet, as our special report shows, a lot can be done even now. A combination of new aircraft built from lighter materials, new fuel-conserving engines and more efficient operating procedures could cut airlines' fuel consumption by half—and reduce CO2 emissions by a similar amount over the next decade or so. This would suit passengers too. A more efficient industry would make flying less of a hassle, by modernising fleets and reducing delays and congestion.

What, then, is getting in the way of such evident progress? Governments, mostly. Take air traffic control. It is inexcusable that Europe has failed to overhaul its system, which is supplied by a ridiculous 34 different providers organised largely around national boundaries. The resulting delays and longer routings cost airlines €3.3 billion ($4.4 billion) a year. America has only one supplier, but its system dates from the 1950s and a plan to replace it with a more efficient satellite-based one is bogged down by squabbles in Congress over job losses at older centres; private pilots also fear higher charges.

Plenty more gains are going begging. More direct air routes between countries may save only minutes, but each minute reduces fuel consumption by 60 litres and saves 160kg of CO2. Towing aircraft instead of letting them taxi helps; more efficient landing approaches are useful too. And many airports are inefficiently priced, with established airlines claiming “grandfather” rights over scarce take-off and landing slots. If these were auctioned to the highest bidder, airlines would use them better, mostly with larger aircraft.

Aerofoiled

The biggest single favour governments could do for air travellers and the environment is to get out of the way and let airlines make money. Airlines need to become more reliably profitable in order to replace kerosene-guzzling 20-year-old jets with new and more spacious fuel-efficient aircraft.

More open-skies agreements and more privatisations would help. But so too would allowing failed airlines to go bust rather than being propped up with state support or America's Chapter 11 bankruptcy code. Laws barring foreigners from taking over airlines should go. Foreign-ownership restrictions deny efficiencies from consolidation and mean no carrier has more than a few percent of the world market. Until the industry that helped bring about globalisation is allowed to globalise itself, flying will remain troublesome and dirty.

http://economist.com/opinion/display...ory_id=9339769
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