Virgin Atlantic chairman Richard Branson late last month called on the transportation industry to reduce carbon dioxide emissions, proposing a number of initiatives that he said would slash such greenhouse gases by up to 25 percent if adopted. While serving as the latest call to action for airlines specifically and the travel industry at large to implement environmentally friendly travel operations, domestic carriers have been in the midst of cutting emissions and jet fuel consumption amid high fuel costs that for years have been eating further into the industry's earnings.
Yet, proponents of further environmental protection say airlines could do more to curb CO2 emissions and offset the transportation sector's impact on the environment.
The Air Transport Association of America said that since 2000 alone its member carriers—including American, Continental, Delta, JetBlue, Northwest, Southwest, United and US Airways—have in sum increased fuel efficiency by 23 percent.
James May, ATA president and CEO, this summer at the International Civil Aviation Organization-Airports Council International Global Air Transport Outlook Conference in Montreal touted the gains domestic carriers have made. Whether driven by the desire for cost reductions or corporate social responsibility, the results have been dramatic and should be ongoing, ATA's May noted. "By the next decade, working together, we must figure out how to deal prudently with climate change," he said. "For the airline industry, the way forward is to continue to improve fuel efficiency, which directly reduces greenhouse gas emissions. U.S. carriers have made great strides in improving average fuel efficiency by 44 percent since 1990."
Despite gains, Virgin Atlantic's Branson in a letter to airlines, aircraft manufacturers and airport operators, noted that aviation incurs around 2 percent of global CO2 emissions. "We need to accelerate the pace at which we reduce aviation's impact on the environment," he wrote.
Branson last month pledged the earnings from his transportation businesses, including Virgin Atlantic, to be invested in businesses that develop renewable energy—with plans to contribute $3 billion during the next decade for the initiative.
Among his recommendations, Branson suggested the creation of new airport infrastructure to reduce fuel burn before takeoff and after landing. He envisions "starting grids," to which commercial airplanes would be taxied—engines off—before takeoff, only to start their engines about 10 minutes before takeoff. "This would substantially reduce the amount of time aircraft need to taxi with their engines running and the time spent queuing before takeoff." Airlines, however, for years have used some form of this system, through which planes are towed to gates by small vehicles upon landing.
Branson also touted the "continuous descent approach," through which aircraft begin descent at a higher altitude, moving groundward steadily, as opposed to a staggered approach that burns excessive fuel. "This earlier descent means that aircraft descend at a more efficient speed, therefore reducing fuel burn. Virgin Atlantic believes that all air traffic control authorities should adopt this approach, saving considerable CO2 emissions," the carrier said in a statement.
ATA's May noted many domestic carriers already have adopted continuous descent approaches, "which have the potential to significantly reduce noise, fuel burn and emissions on every landing."
Other Branson-encouraged initiatives included reducing the weight of aircraft, which in turn would reduce the amount of fuel needed to fly. He also called on Europe to singularize its air traffic control organizations, painting the system as a "mess of European air traffic control" that "is punishing the environment, with 35 different air traffic control organizations, compared with just one in America."
Branson said that plan would "optimize air routings by aircraft and improve environmental performance further."
While Branson suggested there is a greater level of efficiency in the U.S. air traffic control system, May said more could be done stateside to further reduce emissions.
"In U.S. airspace, optimizing routings has the potential to cut per-flight fuel consumption by up to 12 percent and, correspondingly, to further reduce emissions," May said.
Furthermore, the International Air Transport Association said airlines could reduce fuel consumption by up to 18 percent through "optimized air traffic control, which would eliminate millions of tons of CO2 emissions."
ATA in a report on jet fuel this year also suggested newer aerodynamic winglets, which would "cut fuel consumption between 3 percent and 5 percent, saving more than 100,000 gallons of fuel per aircraft per year while reducing noise and emissions."
Duane Futch, travel manager for Wal-Mart, which he said owns the largest fleet of corporate jets in the world, said the company is developing a new wing flap on the planes in its corporate fleet in the hopes of increasing fuel efficiency by 5 percent.
The winglet approach also has been effective at Continental Airlines. Continental president Jeff Smisek told Business Travel News that his carrier since 1998 has drastically reduced emissions through a young fleet and other fuel-efficiency initiatives. Smisek said Continental in the past decade has become nearly 25 percent more fuel-efficient. While the initiatives foremost reduced costs for the carrier, there also has been significant reduction in emissions.
Calyon Securities analyst Ray Neidl agreed. "Continental's young fleet age coupled with the investments it made in fuel-saving technologies, such as winglets, have accounted for 24.4 percent more fuel efficiency," Neidl said. "As such, Continental is the most fuel-efficient airline relative to other network carriers, providing the company with a competitive advantage, given the large percentage of total costs that fuel constitutes."
However, even the gains that airlines have made in recent years may be offset by a growing worldwide aviation sector, which has prompted some to propose legislation that would hold carriers further accountable to the environment.
"The aviation sector is growing fast—aircraft movements are predicted to double by 2020 and triple by 2030—and technological efficiency gains just aren't enough to counteract the massive increases in emissions that this will generate," said European Parliament member Caroline Lucas, who this year introduced a measure adopted by European Parliament to impose on airlines an emissions-trading scheme and additional taxes to offset emissions. The proposal still awaits European Union legislation and would not be adopted until 2008 at the earliest, if at all.
"Although Virgin Atlantic supports an emissions trading scheme, climate change will only be tackled markedly by a reduction in carbon emissions themselves," said Steve Ridgway, CEO of Virgin Atlantic.
Brian Mullis, president of Sustainable Travel International, an advocacy group for eco-friendly travel, said he recently has been in discussions with several carriers, educating them on environmental issues and suggesting ways the aviation industry can offset emissions.
Although Branson noted that only about 2 percent of worldwide emissions comes from aviation, Mullis said that CO2 emissions at higher altitudes are more damaging to the environment.
"Once they're in that level of the environment, it's very difficult to remove those emissions," Mullis said. "There's still a lot of work to be done. Since airlines fly at a higher level in the atmosphere, it's much more difficult to sequester the amount of carbon. We hear critics of global warning say that airline travel is not the main culprit of climate change, that it's really industrial business. That's really not taking into consideration that variable."
Mullis called on carriers to include carbon calculators on their Web sites, so travelers can trace—and even offset—their carbon footprint while booking, as several consumer and corporate booking engines have done.
"There's a turnkey solution for the airlines," Mullis said. "All they need to do is offer offsetting calculators on their Web sites so their clients can go direct. Fortunately, since Expedia and Travelocity have added offsetting to their portfolio of add-ons, that will incentivize the airlines to follow suit. Otherwise they could lose that marketshare."
Mullis said corporate travel buyers could take the lead in encouraging carriers to adopt eco-friendly operations.
"Some of the research I've seen suggests that corporate accounts for business travel will probably move to the more responsible travel providers," he said. "It's what's being demanded by shareholders and consumers."
Cisco is perhaps the most recent example of a large corporation that has championed green travel initiatives. On its Web site last month, the technology giant noted a variety of green initiatives while also committing itself to the Clinton Global Initiative.
President and CEO John Chambers said company air travel represents "just over half of Cisco's carbon emissions," adding that the company would drastically reduce its dependency on air travel, while bolstering its use of travel alternatives.
"With this initiative, Cisco has committed to reducing the carbon emissions by a minimum of 10 percent, starting with a dramatic reduction in our air travel over the next year," Chambers said. "Our planned reduction in travel would result in savings of well over $100 million from our travel expenses," he added.
The company spent about $375 million on travel expenses last year alone, according to data BTN's Corporate Travel 100 report (BTN, Aug. 28).
Chambers said Cisco hopes to "serve as role model to challenge companies and countries to reduce carbon emissions."
Other companies, too, have gone green. While perhaps not as drastic as Cisco's planned travel reductions, such companies as Credit Suisse
(BTN, May 15) Hewlett-Packard
(BTN, May 15) and Nike
(BTN, Sept. 22, 2003), among many others, have incorporated green policies—and encouraged vendors to follow suit.