BELGIUM: Airline industry says "open skies" deal is good for passengers but environmental lobby says it is a setback for efforts to combat climate change

Open Skies may be better for passengers who are likely to see a drop in transatlantic fares but ultimately it will also mean more polluting of the environment with the EU predicting a substantial rise in the number of planes flying. : The European Airlines industry welcomed the open skies EU-U.S. open skies deal backed by EU ministers on Thursday (March 22), saying it was better for business as well as passengers. EU transport ministers meeting in Brussels on Thursday unanimously backed the landmark agreement which throws open transatlantic air travel to more competition and consequently will drive down air fares. The "open skies" agreement will allow EU airlines to fly from any city in the 27-nation bloc to any city in the United States and vice versa. The 27 ministers sought a five-month delay in implementing the deal so it would take effect in March 2008 instead of October this year. This followed a request by Britain, eager to protect its national airline, British Airways, which stands to lose a lucrative market share at London's Heathrow airport if more airlines are to be allowed to operate transatlantic flights out of that airport. Spokeswoman for Association of European Airlines (AEA) Francoise Humbert said the agreement would push fares down for passengers. She said it would also harmonise security standards between the EU and the United States. "For passengers it's a good deal because well lower fares, more choice. It's also a good deal because the U.S. and the EU have agreed to collaborate closely on issues such as security, safety, the environment. That is good for consumers. For security, for example, it means more harmonisation and less hassle at security check points between the two regions," Humbert said. The AEA says that divergent security measures up until now has meant longer queues and more chaos for passengers as different countries implement different security rules. Harmonisation will mean that if the U.S. decides to implement new security rules and demands that the EU comply, then Washington will need the European Commission's agreement before such measures are brought into force. The European Federation for Transport and the Environment (T&E) director Jos Dings warns that the deal will mean more planes will fly across the Atlantic and so there will be an increase in CO2 emissions, harmful to the environment. Dings say the Open Skies deal contradicts the EU's aim to reduce CO2 emissions. Two weeks ago the commission promoted its historic aim to cut CO2 emissions by 20 percent and has proposed including airplanes in the European Emissions Trading System in an effort to encourage the industry to use more fuel efficient aircraft. The European Emissions Trading System is a scheme to put a price on emitting CO2 and hence provide an incentive to reduce those emissions Dings said: "Well, as the commission already said, there will be 25 million extra passengers across the Atlantic over the next five years. We did a little calculation and found out that this cancels out any gain that any emissions that we would get from the inclusion of aviation in emissions trading system, what Europe is pushing for at the moment." Dings wants a fuel tax to be imposed on planes from EU countries and the United States. He said the aviation industry has not done anything to improve fuel efficiency in the last 50 years. "Well it's a nice development for people who want to do weekend shopping in New York but it's less nice development for those who are going to suffer from climate change. We deeply regret that in this agreement virtually none of the obstacles for the implementation of environmental policy in aviation have been removed and it's still not possible to introduce a fuel tax over the Atlantic - it's going to be very difficult to tax the fuel that American carriers use in Europe - so in terms of the environment this is a very bad deal," Dings said. T & E says aviation is responsible for 4 to 9 percent of the impact of climate change at the global level and 5 to 12 percent in the EU.

ITN Source | March 23, 2007

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