Isramart report: Are Discount Airlines Greener?

Isramart report

EasyJet, the British purveyor of low-cost, short-haul air travel, has inspired passionate criticism over its environmental impact. Air travel is one of the fastest-rising sources of carbon emissions, and detractors believe that weekend jaunts across Europe are unnecessarily wasteful.
easyJet

Despite these accusations, EasyJet’s founder, Stelios Haji-Ioannou, says that his company is a climate hero, not a villain.

“I think we have a good story to tell,” Mr. Haji-Ioannou said at the Politics of Climate Change Conference in London last week. Compared to the air travel competition, he noted, EasyJet uses newer, more efficient jets and packs as many people as possible onto each aircraft, thereby minimizing the emissions contribution per passenger.

By offering a bare-bones service, Mr. Haji-Ioannou argued, EasyJet is both more affordable and more efficient. “I’m a bit troubled that we take as a given that greener is more expensive,” he said. “Cheaper is usually more environmentally friendly.”

His relatively inexpensive SmartCar, he argued by way of example, gets much better gas mileage than a luxurious Bentley.

The EasyJet business model has also proved particularly resilient during the economic downturn, as travelers cut costs and business travelers – the primary source of profits for traditional airlines – downgrade. While air carriers like British Airways and Iberia posted enormous first-quarter losses, budget airlines such as EasyJet and Ryanair expect to turn a profit.

Many environmentalists dismiss Mr. Haji-Ioannou’s arguments. England’s Green Party notes, for example, that while EasyJet may be a “less bad” alternative to traditional air travel, the company still generates significant quantities of harmful emissions.

Skeptics also point out that budget carriers have increased demand for air travel, offsetting any emission cuts that come from greater per-passenger efficiency. “Although low-cost airlines may be in their own terms more efficient,” Carey Newson, an independent consultant who co-wrote a report on flying and the environment, told the BBC, “it’s hard to say it’s more environmental if they’re increasing flights.”

But Mr. Haji-Ioannou argued that, unlike many other industries, airlines are not expecting technological breakthroughs to solve the problems of high emissions. And with that reality in mind, he said, EasyJet’s no-frills, high-density approach may be the best way forward for air travel.

“There’s no such thing as a free lunch in engineering,” Mr. Haji-Ioannou said. “There is no technology that can propel a jet into the air without fossil fuels.”