Aviation industry is committed to making flying sustainable

IT'S no secret that aviation has come in for a good deal of scrutiny and criticism over its environmental impacts. The flight-shaming phenomenon and proposals for a Green New Deal that would reduce and even replace air travel with other modes of transport have been in the news around the world, not just in Europe and the United States, where they respectively originated.

Less well known is that environmental sustainability has always been high on aviation's agenda. Today's new aircraft emit 50 per cent less carbon monoxide and 90 per cent less smoke and unburned hydrocarbons than those made 50 years ago, and carbon emissions from the average journey are actually half what they were in 1990.

Moreover, since 2008, the industry, including airlines, airports, equipment manufacturers and air-navigation services providers, has had a goal to address its 2 per cent share of human-caused CO2 by capping net emissions from 2020 and cutting them in half by 2050, compared to 2005 level…