OAG Travel News

Ryanair has called on the European Commission to abandon its plans to include aviation in the European Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) and address the “chronically inefficient Air Traffic Control system in Europe, which accounts for 12% of aviation emissions”.

At this week’s World Low Cost Airlines Congress 2008, it said the EC's scheme would punish the most efficient airlines.

The airline’s director of legal and regulatory affairs Jim Callaghan said: “The Commission’s proposals for including aviation in ETS will do nothing for the environment and in fact will damage it as it punishes the most efficient airlines while protecting the most inefficient, like Alitalia and Olympic Airways.

“This is unsurprising given the Commission’s ongoing policy of rubber stamping billions of Euros in State aid to failing national airlines.

“If the Commission was serious about doing something for the environment, it would start actually enforcing the State aid rules and let these inefficient, polluting airlines go out of business. Transferring these passengers to efficient airlines like Ryanair would roughly halve existing airline emissions.

“We are therefore again calling on the European Commission to stop approving illegal State aid to the likes of Alitalia and Olympic Airways and do the environment a favour!”.

Source: By Bev Fearis www.travelmole.com