Low cost airlines are an environmental disaster

A low-cost carrier or low cost institutionalise passage is an breezeline that offers generally low fares in ex modify for eliminating many traditional passenger services. The concept originated in the United States before spreading to Europe in the early 1990s and subsequently to a great deal of the rest of the world. The name originated within the airline industry referring to airlines with a low or lower operating cost structure than their competitors. Through popular media the term has since come to define any carrier with low ticket prices and limited services regardless of their costs. While most discount airlines have more supply- streamlined fleets than sometime(a) carriers, their significant contribution to sky transaction is unprecedented.Commercial passenger airlines, especially low cost and Internet sales-based carriers, are experiencing recrudesceth internationally. In the United States, airline flight sales dropped 30 per cent directly following September 11, but have since make a comeback and are now experiencing easy but steady growth.Today, the U.S. has been able to maintain its place as the leading nation in air travel, and North America accounts for 40 percent of general air traffic.Low-cost airlines such as Jet Blue bearingways have led this domestic growth, topping the Bureau of Transportation charts for domestic profit gains. respiratory tract sales in Asia are escalating as well, and the skies are becoming increasingly more crowded. In China alone, the market is projected to grow more than cc percent from 1999 to 2014.While these flares may seem like a dream come true for low-budget travelers, the resulting surge in air traffic carries with it major environsal costs. Even with the more fuel-efficient technology that has evolved over the last 30 years, air travel remains a significant contributor to climate change. Air transport has increased twice as fast as road transport over the last 40 years. Air travel produces more atomic number 6 dioxide per km travelled for each passenger than car travel.There are clearly environmental effects increasing as a result of air travel, while others are decreasing or staying constant. Environmentalists say airlines rate as one of the most polluting forms of transport, with 16,000 commercial jets producing over 600 million tonne of hundred dioxide both year.Meanwhile, precise guidelines on international aircraft emissions are excluded from the Kyoto Protocol, with the stipulation that airline emission reform must be taken up by a dissolve organization, the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO). Internationally, fuel used for aviation is tax exempt, and according to ICAO Secretariat John Crayston, While the ICAO has established emissions standards for certain emissions in that location are no standards for CO2. The International Air Transport Association (IATA) estimates that aviations share in climate change is at about 3.5 percent of the total con tributions, which is predicted to advance to five percent by 2050.According to the International Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), aerosol particles that are emitted in aviation such as soot, metals and sulfuric acid can indirectly influence climate change by causing additional cirrus clouds to form, which in turn trap the heating system rising from the Earths surface. The IPCC projects an overall global temperature increase from 34.7 to 40.1 degrees Fahrenheit between 1990 and 2100.Unlike in the US where a large number of domestic flights emit coke dioxide over one area, the SDC has said that 97% of UK air transport is non-domestic, with carbon dioxide emissions generated on flights between countries. PARIS The European boom in low-cost airlines, supply by tax incentives, is increasing the level of toxic gases in the atmosphere and displacing less polluting and more efficient means of transportation for shorter distances, like trains.The Kyoto Protocol and the UK governments vi gor White Paper targets do not currently cover emissions from international aviation, as there is no global agreement on the allocation of these emissions to countries. It may not mean that the industry would be destroyed, but there are much more efficient and effective tools when it comes to dealing with emissions. One other curtain raising that has been put forward by the airline industry is emissions trading. Numbers passing through UK airports expected to double to 400m by 2030.Air travel is growing globally at about 5% a year.At the forefront of this revolution are the low-cost, no-frills carriers such as Ryanair, Easyjet and Buzz, which are growing at a phenomenal rate. In June, Easyjet passenger numbers were up more than 50% on the same month last year. Ryanair increased by 34% and Go truism an incredible 72% rise. The lesson learned from these airlines, especially post-11 September, is as clear as it is simple the cheaper your fares, the more people will fly. But if air t ravel is allowed to grow unchecked in this way, it will spell disaster for the planet, say environmentalists.More flights mean bigger, busier airports, which in turn means more hindrance and growing problems with air quality for those who live and work close to airports. But perhaps the biggest concern is the effect on global warming. The problem for environmentalists is that while efforts are being made to cut CO2 emissions from cars and industry, nothing is being done to rein in the airlines.Climatic changeBurning aviation fuel releases greenhouse gases predominantly carbon dioxide (CO2) into the environment, causing the Earth to heat up leads to global warming and the process of climate changes such as spunkyer sea levels, devastating floods and droughts. Air traffic worldwide produces emissions of more than 600 million tons of carbon dioxide.In addition, it releases nitrates, ash, sulfates and water vapor. Some of these substances deplete ozone in the atmosphere. This layer of ozone gas is crucial for protecting smell on Earth from the Suns harmful rays. Flying also releases nitrogen oxides and sulphur oxides, and even the vapour trails contrails left by planes are thought to be a hazard. Its been suggested that they add to the insulating effect of cirrus clouds on our climate.The Britain-based environmental group Tourism Concern predicts that by 2015 half of the annual destruction of the ozone layer will be caused by commercial air traffic and the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change estimates aviation causes 3.5 per cent of man-made global warming and that exercise could rise to 15 per cent by 2050.NASA scientists say condensation trails from jet exhausts create cirrus clouds that may trap heat rising from the earths surface. This could account for nearly all the warming over the United States between 1975 and 1994. The guidelines on international aircraft emissions were excluded from the Kyoto protocol on climate change and avi ation fuel is tax exempt.Aerospace firms have made huge leaps forward, with commercial jets now 70 per cent more fuel efficient per passenger kilometre (mile) than they were 40 years ago, thanks to better engines, lighter materials and aerodynamic designs. Optimists, including Easyjet, pin their hopes on technology to make planes more efficient.And cost-obsessed carriers are continuously searching for ways to use electrical capacity better, find more direct flight paths and cut congestion in order to trim the hefty fuel bills which make up 25 per cent of airline operating costs. Most discount airlines have young, more fuel-efficient fleets and newer airlines in regions such as Asia have leap-frogged older technologies to buy new planes. Hundreds of flights by subsidized airlines in Europe are endangering the global climate and the ozone layer. For now, they fly free of environmental regulations.The industry believes this Air Passenger Duty (APD), which raises 800m a year, can be re garded as a form of environmental compensation. It may not mean that the industry would be destroyed, but there are much more efficient and effective tools when it comes to dealing with emissions. Since April this year, airlines that use Heathrow Airport have been charged for nitrogen oxide emissions and carriers emitting less receive a rebate. This will happen in Gatwick in a year or so.One other possibility that has been put forward by the airline industry is emissions trading. Under this scheme, to help with the environmental costs caused by civil aviation pollution, by 2008, the industry would pay for other industries, such as the nuclear fuels sector, to reduce their carbon emissions.The proposal has been put forward to the European Commission, and includes an incentive for airlines to pay less into emissions trading if they use more environmentally friendly aircraft. The FOE says emissions trading, and the proposal to differentiate landing charges at airports according to nois e levels and air pollution, outlined in last years aviation White Paper, has potential.The issue of an aviation fuel tax is not top of the international climate change agenda, because it will have to be confronted at a global level. There are a lot of domestic issues the government has to deal with, areas that damage the environment more than the 5% of carbon dioxide emissions caused by the airline industry.On this basis, the likelihood of low-cost air fares rising in the near future is an unlikely one.ReferencesBBC news Europe. 2005 . EU plans airline CO2 reductions. online http//news.bbc.co.uk/2/low/europe/4287048.stm . 18 November 2006 Christian Dietsche. 2005. The high price of low-cost airlines. online http//www.cafebabel.com/en/ 18 November 2006 Daniel Mann. 2004. Calls to control low-cost flights.online 18 November 2006 Jonathan Duffy. 2002. The high price of low-cost airlines. online http//news.bbc.co.uk/1/low/uk/2327487.stm 19 November 2006 Julio Godoy.2004. EUROPE The T rue Cost of Flying. online http//www.ipsnews.net/africa/interna.asp?idnews=26687 Michael Smith. 2006. 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