IGNORE: Is the environment still an important issue?
Tuesday, 24 Jun, 2009
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TravelMole Guest Opinion by Flybe chief commercial officer Mike Rutter
As unemployment continues to rise, business failure dominates the news and the political establishment topples from one crisis to another, have green issues slipped off our agenda?
Looking at the evidence it would seem that they have. Did anyone notice that June 5 was World Environment Day?
Beyond its initial coverage, how long will the Met Office prediction of increased average temperatures for the UK in 2050 stay in the travelling public’s mind?
In this month’s Euro elections, despite the travails of the mainstream political parties, the Green Party still only took two UK seats.
Price, and price alone, is again King when it comes to the primary factor affecting our consumption decisions. At least that’s what it seems.
More and more, Flybe see companies that invite airlines to tender for travel business asking serious and searching questions about our commitment to environmentally efficient travel. These questions are not ‘tick box’ or superficial. Of course they want to know what price we can offer and how quickly we’ll take them from A to B but they also want to know how travelling with us will add to, or impact, their carbon footprint.
Fortunately, Flybe is in a good position to be able to reassure such potential customers. Having spent more that $2billion on new aircraft over the last few years, we operate one of the youngest fleets in the world, with an average age of just 2.7 years.
As Europe’s largest regional airline, Flybe fully accepts that human activity, including aviation, is having an impact on climate change. We took the decision, in June 2007, to respond to Stern’s call for businesses to inform customers about the environmental impact of their actions in order to drive change. We introduced the world’s first eco-labelling scheme which did just that for aviation. Like Lord Stern, we believe that informed consumer choice is the most effective force available to drive environmental standards in the aviation industry.
Under the scheme, passengers are provided with a clear breakdown of the fuel consumption, carbon emissions and noise patterns of the aircraft type to be used on their journey. The eco-label is not intended to compare aviation with any other form of transport; rather, it is giving transparent information to a customer who has made the decision to fly. While the response from the rest of the industry has been a deafening silence, political opinion formers are waking up to its potential.
In January 2008, the Treasury Select Committee stated that: “Airlines should adopt a system of eco-labelling, so that consumers can compare the environmental footprint of each airline when purchasing their tickets”
Evidence that, as an industry, some of us are responding, but we do need to be doing more and other transport providers would do well to wake up to their corporate social responsibility and act accordingly.
The Air Transport World ‘Regional Airline of the Year’ award was given to us in part because we were amongst the first to recognise the limitations of the 50-seat regional jets that revolutionised the industry in the 1990s, replacing them with larger, more fuel-efficient turboprops and 90-seat jets better suited to today’s market realities.
As an industry we need to talk less and act more and stand up to our responsibilities to provide our customers with information so they can make an informed decision – all the while acting as responsibly as we can.
Flybe will be re-launching our carbon offset programme in the next few weeks and reminding our passengers that regional aviation has its house firmly in order.
The environment is, and will remain, an important global industry issue and those that think the environment is just another bullet point in their CSR report are burying their heads in the sand.
Phil Davies
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