Air Passenger Travel

1 May 2013

Iata: Air travel rises by 5.9% worldwide

 

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-22369230

 

“The International Air Transport Association (Iata) says air passenger travel grew by 5.9% in March compared with a year earlier, boosted by emerging markets.”

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“I was intrigued to read earlier this month a thoughtful essay by leading British climate scientist Kevin Anderson arguing, in terms that will sound very familiar to regular readers of The Archdruid Report, that the failure of climate change activism to make any headway in changing people’s behavior may have more than a little to do with the fact that the people who are urging such changes aren’t making them themselves.”

John Michael Greer’s blog:  WEDNESDAY, MAY 15, 2013  http://thearchdruidreport.blogspot.co.uk/

 

 

Comment by Sky McCain

 

Although I am aware that air travel and air shipping is on the increase, I felt I needed to gather some facts, the latest if possible.  We could guess that air travel was not on the wane nor diminished through at least two indicators.  One, noting the huge success of an air show in the UK last year and a recent article on the increased profits of EADS who own Airbus, a successful competitor of Boeing Aerospace.  Middle Eastern and Far Eastern countries are buying up aircraft like they were so many corn chips.  So are people taking climate change seriously and switching to Rail?  By no means.  Following is an indication and perhaps a reason why not.  People fly because it is cheap and convenient.  Some of the more popular holiday spots are on islands that take a lot of time and money to reach by ferry.  There are no cut-rate ferry lines like Easyjet, JetBlue, Flybe or RyanAir.

 

Let us compare prices for a round-trip from London to Heraklion, Crete

 

London Heathrow  round-trip to Heraklion, Crete  122.99  plus £62.17 leaving at midnight!  £115 leaving at 2PM.  Lowest price £185.16

 

Flying Easyjet you only have to get to Heathrow.

 

To go by Train and Ferry, however is a vastly different story. These are round trip estimates.

1st  Eurostar London to Paris  £150

2nd  Paris sleeper [1 berth] to Venice  £424

3rd  Ferry to Patras  £424

4th  Bus to Pireaus  approx. £25

 

5th  Ferry Pireaus round-trip Heraklion, Crete £224.77

 

So you see, we have a 3 day journey cost, not including meals totalling  £1,023   That’s easily 5 times the cost for your flight holiday in Heraklion

 

We go a little cheaper by visiting off-season but pay at least 4 times more for staying out of the air. Not many people feel that strongly about staying out of the air unless to visit overseas close family.

 

 

Some statistics

 

There have been continual increases in travel & freight.  For instance,

“From 1992 to 2005, passenger kilometers increased 5.2% per year, even with the disruptions of 9/11 and two significant wars. During the first three quarters of 2010, air travel markets expanded at an annualized rate approaching 10%. This is similar to the rate seen in the rapid expansion prior to the recession.”

 

 

“In a 2008 presentation[6] and paper [20] Professor Kevin Anderson of the Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research showed how continued aviation growth in the UK threatens the ability of that nation to meet CO2 emission reduction goals necessary to contain the century-end temperature increase to even 4 or 6C° …at the UK’s historic annual emission growth rate of 7%. Beyond 2012 if the growth rate were reduced to 3% yearly, carbon emissions in 2030 would be 28 MT, which is 70% of the UK’s entire carbon emissions budget that year for all sectors of society.”

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Environmental_impact_of_aviation