A number of UK airlines have vigorously rebuffed calls by the IPPR to introduce cigarette-style
advertising health warnings on aviation.Flybe announced that it will take the industry lead by launching
an innovative labelling scheme in May that will provide consumers with
detailed environmental information about their air journey.

But meanwhile Mike Rutter, Chief Commercial Officer of Flybe commented: “IPPR is
another London-centric think tank looking down the wrong end of the
telescope. Airlines account for less than 1.6% of global greenhouse
gases, UK aviation accounts for 0.1% of global emissions. We suggest the
IPPR concentrate on power generation, car and sea transport, and many
other categories before it seeks to attach gesture politics to aviation.

The company accepts the need to create a sustainable aviation future and
confirms that it will launch a major environmental labelling scheme in
May to provide consumers with information about aircraft performance
therefore allowing them to be informed about those airlines like Flybe
who have invested heavily in best of class technology which delivers
lower impact on local and global environments.

And easyJet were also quick to respond with the following statement:

“If the IPPR is actually keen to do something about global warming rather
it should direct its attention towards those industries where it can
seriously make a difference. The Stern Review showed that aviation
accounts for only 1.6% of global greenhouse gases - which, put simply,
means that grounding every aircraft in the world would have no affect
whatsoever on climate change. Aviation is the red herring of global
climate change and focussing excessively on air travel means that
serious policies to combat power generation (one-third of global
greenhouse gases) are by-passed in favour of policies to address
aviation (one fiftieth of global greenhouse gases).

p>“easyJet favours a more constructive debate about how policies can be
used to incentivise airlines to operate the cleanest, most modern
aircraft technology - easyJet’s combination of one of Europe’s youngest
fleets and a highly-efficient model means we pollute 27% less than many
legacy airlines. Also, easyJet emits 95.7 grammes of CO2 per seat
kilometre - substantially less than the CO2 emissions of Toyota Prius.”
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