EasyJet wants adult jets grounded to help the environment
European low-cost airline EasyJet got some attention last week with their proposal to build a new, cleaner emissions jet and now they are striking out against their competitors. As fairly recent entrant to the airline business, EasyJet has a fleet average age of only 2.2 years old, but many other smaller or established airlines have some very old aircraft. As with older cars, older aircraft tend to use a lot more fuel and pollute more.
EasyJet wants European lawmakers to put a cap on the age of commercial aircraft that can be operated. If EasyJet gets their way all planes over 22 years old would have to be retired and replaced with younger aircraft. While Airbus, Boeing, Embraer and Bombardier would surely approve of such a plan, it's really rather disingenuous of EasyJet to claim this will help the environment.
Using newer planes is definitely better from a fuel use and emissions perspective. However, in Europe in particular where high speed train service is widely available, it would make far more sense for people to just switch away from air travel. Many of the trains are electric and even factoring in the energy source, the total well to wheel/wing emissions are much lower than flying. If you factor in the fact that train stations are typically in city centers, the total cost, time and emissions associated with train travel are far superior for the short to medium haul services on the continent.
[Source: TreeHugger]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Scatter 4:06PM (6/20/2007)
Travelling by train in Europe is a pleasure - punctual, mostly fast, sometimes very fast and most importantly, easy (there's little in the way of border controls in mainland Europe so you just hop on in one city and off in another).
The time it takes is very dependent on the route. You can get from London to Paris/Brussels by Eurostar in about 3 hours (2.5 hours in a few months time). If I want to go on to Berlin, say, it'll take a further 7 hours or so.
The main issue is cost. Budget airlines are much, much cheaper. In two months time I could fly from London to Berlin on EasyJet for £24 ($48) one way including taxes (£17/$34 of the price is tax). It would cost me £30 ($60) to get one way from London to Brussels on the Eurostar.
Not surprisingly, most people choose to fly instead of take the train. This will continue until they start to tax aviation as it should be taxed.
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Peter 4:22PM (6/20/2007)
This proposal is off the mark. The age of the planes is not the root of the problem, the emissions are. So don't regulate age, regulate emissions.
Oh wait, that would have an effect on EasyJet and not just EasyJet's competitors.
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Phil L. 9:58AM (6/21/2007)
Peter -
True. And, unlike automobiles, it's common for old aircraft to be retrofitted with newer engine designs. The age of the airframe itself isn't the issue at all.
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Lorraine Mc 6:06PM (7/03/2007)
I wanted to commend EasyJet’s attempts at being green. I agree, they should be tracking their emissions, not just forcing older jets off the skyway. It's a great way to get press by making outrageous demands like that but... you think they might want to clean up some other things in their back yard first. Yup, they care about the environment… but at what cost to customer service?
They use baggage weight bouncers controls to keep hefty passengers suitcases from stepping foot onto their planes. So there we were, unpacking on the grubby floor at Gatwick Airport, while those waiting in line for their own bad news perused the detritus of our three weeks jetting to and fro in Europe. Our goal? Attempt to re-distribute the weight in all our bags so we’d arrive at the magic weight for our check on bags before EasyJet closed off the flight.
Now I don’t know about you, but how many of us carry a weigh scale while we are on holiday? What does EasyJet think we are going to do at this point in our travel? Pay the fine of course. What a great way to bring in additional revenue. Alienate your customers by humiliating them in front of their fellow passengers and then charge them more for the pleasure.
Now folks, this is not a great way to be the ripple. I bet you that bag weigher lady goes home each night ready to tear a strip off of someone from having to be EasyJet’s enforcer. What kind of ripple does she spread with her colleagues? Seemed they were all a little beyond irritated with all of us by the end. I wonder why they thought it would be a great idea to broadcast all that frustration right in front of us as if we weren’t really there? Airing some dirty laundry, me thinks. You get what you think about all day. That’s a big red flag to me that all is not sunny behind that green curtain
Hmmm… you know, I bet there must be a better way to be green and eliminate the hassle for your customers. At the rate the competition is growing for bargain fare airlines, I bet the next green wannabe EasyJet will find a way to do both.
People… CEOs… there is a better way to be green and customer friendly!! I bet we could all think of a few things that EasyJet could do. I’ll start brainstorming, you add…
1. EasyJet could place a weigh scale at the beginning of the line and place a curtained-off area for passengers to work out how they will deal with their luggage before they’ve just spent 1.5 hours in the queue.
2. EasyJet could set up a joint venture with a package delivery service and have a customer counter with that firm right there, beside you in the line after you’ve just gotten the bad news that it will cost you big bucks to send home your dirty laundry and that lovely bottle of Limoncello you just had to buy. Better yet, EasyJet could start their own package delivery service and charge half the rates of a competitor to get your overweight treasures home. Then they could get that extra revenue they would forgo by removing the customers’ pain.
You can add more ideas for EasyJet at www.betheripple.com
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