Passengers and politicians giving up on greener air travel

A renewed push for economic growth has added to technological challenges and problems with carbon offset schemes.

- Kenza Bryan, Peter Campbell and Attracta Mooney

The tower at Gatwick Airport is a hive of activity. At peak times, controllers at Britain’s second-largest airport handle a takeoff or landing almost every minute.

By 2030, they could be even busier: Plans to build a second runway have recently been approved by the British government, potentially raising its capacity to 80 million passengers a year.

Three other London airports are also expanding, even before Heathrow’s planned and controversial third runway, while Paris’ Charles de Gaulle and Barcelona’s El Prat airports have in 2025 restarted development plans that involve expansion.

Passenger numbers in the European Union are set to double by the middle of the century, according to Brussels-based environmental group Transport & Environment, and rise even faster in other regions of the world as emerging middle classes embrace air travel.

In November, governments will gather in Brazil for the latest United Nations climate meeting, where one of the issues on the agenda will be how to raise climate finance from polluting industries including aviation.

The challenge is immense. Hydrogen-powered planes are decades away from commercial viability, sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) is in its infancy, and efforts to dissuade people from air travel have been all but abandoned amid an absence of alternatives and a need to generate economic growth.

“The green agenda is dead,” said Mr Michael O'Leary, chief executive of Ryanair, at a recent media event. “The idea that the French and the Dutch and the Germans were lecturing us for the last 20 years that we should all cycle or go by train or go by motorway, those days are over.”

The return of President Donald Trump in the US has cast a shadow over the longstanding ambition of the EU to tax the carbon dioxide (CO2) associated with long-haul flights.

AIR TRAVEL COMES UNDER SCRUTINY