Pilots: Air travel is a 'scapegoat for global warming'

An airline pilots group has hit back at the environmental lobby, claiming that air transport has become a scapegoat for global warming.

In a report to be presented to government today (June 18), the British Airline Pilots' Association (BALPA) investigates "the true impact of aviation on the environment" and exposes certain half truths and untruths told by air travel's critics.

Stressing that the group is not sceptical about global warming itself, but rather that aviation's portrayal as a major polluter is overblown, BALPA chairman Mervyn Granshaw said: "We were determined at the outset to concern ourselves only with the facts, and what is clear is that aviation has become a scapegoat for global warming."

He pointed out that air travel only accounts for between two and three per cent of worldwide CO2 emissions, and that a new generation of high speed trains that were being introduced throughout Europe were actually bigger polluters than aircraft, in terms of passenger kilometres.

He added that it would be inappropriate and premature to restrict air transport, especially as emissions-cutting technology is being researched.

"Our message to all air passengers is to stop feeling guilty about flying," he said. "Passengers going by high speed train to the south of France would be responsible for emitting more carbon dioxide than if they had flown there."

Various airlines offer schemes whereby concerned passengers can offset the CO2 emitted during their flight. Air Canada has teamed up with Zerofootprint to make it simple for travellers to do this.

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