Airlines are rejoicing at the spin that is being put on a newish discovery. Ships pollute the atmosphere more than aircraft. According to a leaked UN study annual emissions from the world’s merchant fleet have already reached 1.12bn tonnes of CO2, or nearly 4.5% of all global emissions of the main greenhouse gas.

The report suggests that shipping emissions will become one of the largest single sources of man-made CO2 after cars, housing, agriculture and industry.

By comparison, the aviation industry, which has been under heavy pressure to clean up, is responsible for about 650m tonnes of CO2 emissions a year, just over half that from shipping.

The figure is highly embarrassing for the four governments, including Britain, that paid for the report.

Governments and the EU have consistently played down the climate impact of shipping, saying it is less than 2% of global emissions and failing to include shipping emissions in their national estimates for CO2 emissions.

Pressure is now expected to increase on shipowners to switch to better fuels and on the EU to include shipping in its emission trading scheme.

All of which is true. But there is a counter argument which came up in correspondence with the newspaper.

If we got rid of the ships and sent everything by air — a physical impossibility — then we would have a real disaster in that air freight produces 100 times as much CO2 per tonne kilometer.

Which would mean we would quadruple total man-made CO2 emissions.

Shipping carries 80% of world trade and is a vastly bigger industry than aviation and performs a completely different role.

To compare the two so that it suggests airlines are responsible for very little carbon emission is false and, indeed, seems almost like a PR stunt.

And shipping — as have all aircraft — already vastly improved its carbon performance through efficiencies of scale and engine consumption. Today’s container ships emit about a quarter of the CO2 that they did in the 70s — while carrying up to 10 times more cargo. No longer do we find, as John Masefield famously wrote:

Dirty British coaster with a salt-caked smoke stack,

Butting through the Channel in the mad March days,

With a cargo of Tyne coal,

Road-rails, pig-lead,

Firewood, iron-ware, and cheap tin trays.

It is often difficult to find rational debate when it comes to pollution of the atmosphere.
Source: The Guardian

Etihad Airways, the flag carrier of the United Arab Emirates (UAE), will start flying to Beijing on March 30, making it the third Gulf carrier coming to China. While not quite, as yet, competing with Emirates in the luxury stakes it is a very pleasant and well run airline. The writer has flown it several times in economy and was very satisfied.

The airline will fly four times a week connecting Beijing and Abu Dhabi. Beijing will be Etihad’s eighth destination in its rapidly expanding flight network in the Asia-Pacific region.

Etihad will join Dubai-based Emirates Airlines and Doha-based Qatar Airways to provide Chinese travelers with access not only to the Middle East, but to Europe and Africa as well. The theory they are working on is that airport hubs in the Gulf area are growing into the world’s major air travel junctions.

This is not essentially true. One of the problems that these airlines have is convincing travelers that they have well equipped air travel junctions. Many business travelers simply will not make that connection.

James Hogan, Etihad’s chief executive,’There is a huge appetite from business and leisure travelers for flights to Beijing, especially ahead of the 2008 Olympic Games. Our forward bookings are already ahead of our expectations.’
He also said Etihad is looking to increase its frequency to daily flights to Beijing and will fly to Shanghai as well in the near future.

The UAE is home to nearly 200,000 Chinese and more than 2,000 Chinese companies.
Source: China Daily

China’s Hainan Airlines will launch direct flights between Beijing and Seattle from June 9 this year. It is the first time Chinese airliners have used the new China-U.S. air transport rights since China and the United States reached an agreement on revising the 2004 protocol on civil aviation last July.

The new air route has been approved by the General Administration of Civil Aviation of China (CAAC) and the Department of Transportation of the United States.

Four flights are scheduled for Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday every week.

The flight will leave Beijing at 16:20 and arrive in Seattle at 12:00 local time. They will leave Seattle at 14:00 and arrive in Beijing at 16:35 the next day.

The one-way flight will last for about 11 hours. Airbus A330-200s will be used, offering 36 business class and 186 economy class seats.

Hainan Airlines said it will offer a low price for the tickets at RMB5,960 (about $839) for a round-trip.

Established in 1993, Hainan Airlines is one of the four biggest Chinese airlines.
Source: China View

The International Air Transport Association (IATA) has began a landmark travel countdown — it is now slightly less than 100 days to comprehensive flight e-ticketing worldwide.

Giovanni Bisignani, IATA’s Director General and CEO said, ‘In 100 days the paper ticket gets put in a museum. On June 1 2008, we will achieve 100% electronic ticketing.’

IATA began its global e-ticket drive in June 2004, with the dual goals of making travel and shipping more convenient and more cost efficient.

While a paper ticket costs $10 to process, e-ticketing reduces that cost to $1 which means the travel industry will save over $3 billion each year.

When the e-ticketing program began in 2004, only 18% of flight tickets issued globally were e-tickets. Today, according to IATA, global paperless penetration is 93%.

China has agreed to meet IATA’s 100% e-ticket deadline, which comes into force a little more than two months before the start of the 2008 Olympics in Beijing.

Source: BizChina

Beijing Capital International Airport has held its last and largest drill before the trial operation starts February 29.

More than 8,000 passengers participated in the three-hour drill, checking in more than 7,000 pieces of luggage on 146 domestic and international flights.

Organizers said the main purpose of the drill was to test procedures of departure, arrival and transfer, as well as VIP security.

Most participants were university students and other volunteers selected by an online survey. The number of flights involved was nearly double that in the previous drill and was close to the estimated daily average expected when the terminal goes into operation.

Six airlines will use Terminal 3, including Sichuan Airlines, Shandong Airlines, Qatar Airways, Qantas Airways, British Airways and El Al Israel Airlines.

After Terminal 3 ís opening, the airport will have the capacity to carry 82 million passengers annually, against the present 35 million. The expansion cost RMB27 billion ($3.65 billion).
Source: Shanghai Daily