◼ BUSINESS Bloomberg Businessweek September30, 2019
15journeys by almost two-thirds while boostinglevies
on flights and establishing a minimum levelforair-
fares. “We’re going to increase the cost offlyingand
make train tickets cheaper to reflect thecostofcar-
bondioxideemissions,”GermanFinanceMinister
OlafScholzsaidinannouncingthemeasures.
Airlinesthisyearwillpumpalmost 1 billiontons
of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere.Andthe
United Nations says aviation is on tracktoovertake
power generation as the single biggest emitterofCO 2
within three decades. Surging green parties,groups
such as Greenpeace and Extinction Rebellion,and
activists like 16-year-old Swedish environmentalist
Greta Thunberg are fueling the flight-shamemove-
ment by highlighting aviation’s role in globalwarm-
ing. “How dare you pretend that this canbesolved
with just business as usual and some technicalsolu-
tions,”Thunberg,whotravelsEuropebytrainand
tooka sailboattoNewYork,toldtheUN’sClimate
ActionSummitonSept.23. “You are failingus.”
The danger for airlines is growingascompa-
niescutbackonbusinesstravel.Finland’sNordea
BankOyjaimstotrimflights7%thisyearandplans
internalcarbonfeestomeetthatgoal.German
broadcasterTele5 in June said it will nolongerpay
fordomesticflightsforits 60 employees.Consulting
companyPwCandSwitzerland’sZurichInsurance
GroupAG say they want to reduce carbonemissions
per employee by a third or more from 2007levels,
mostly by cutting back on flights. “More ofourmeet-
ings are taking place in virtual space,”saysAlison
Martin, Zurich’s chief executive officer forEurope,
Africa, and the Middle East. “Flying isn’ta prereq-
uisite for getting business done.”
Europeancarriersareatthegreatestriskbecause
theyoftenflyshortdistances,andhigh-speedrailis a
viablealternative.Whileit takesmorethan 19 hours
totravelthe 800 miles from Chicago toNewYork
on Amtrak, a European can cover a similardistance
fromLondontoMarseilleina bitmorethansix
hours.Forairlines,theconcernscouldn’tcomeata
worsetime:Brexitjittersarehitting consumercon-
fidence in Britain, the region’s biggest aviationmar-
ket. And more than a half-dozen Europeancarriers
have gone bust in the past two years astheygrap-
ple with falling fares, slowing economies,risingfuel
costs, congested airspace, and extreme weather.
To burnish its green credibility and mitigatecon-
cerns about flying shame, KLM Royal DutchAirlines
is even discouraging travelers from boardingits
jets—atleastsometimes.“Railwayorothermodes
oftransportationcanbemoresustainablethan
flying,especiallyforshortdistances,”thecompany,
which focuses on long-haul flights, saidinadsthis
summer. In August, Deutsche LufthansaAG CEO
Carsten Spohr lashed out at no-frills carriers, tell-
ing Bloomberg Television that supercheap fares
stoke demand for needless travel and make the
industry an easy target for climate campaigners. “I
don’t think tickets for €4.99 serve any purpose,” he
said. Ryanair soon dispatched an email to custom-
ers in Germany, saying Spohr’s remarks highlight its
rock-bottomprices—andlowemissionsperpassen-
gerbecauseofitstightlypackedplanes.“We’revery
happywiththecomparison,” says Kenny Jacobs,
Ryanair’s chief marketing officer.THEBOTTOMLINE Airlineshavefewoptionsaseventhenewest
aircraft emit far more CO2 than trains, and electric or hybrid jets
won’t likely enter commercial service for almost two decades.FLIGHTCARBONEMISSIONSINCLUDERADIATIVEFORCING,A MEASUREOFTHE*MIDSIZE GASOLINE-POWERED CAR WITH DRIVER ONLYADDITIONALENVIRONMENTAL EFFECTS OF AVIATION.^
DATA:U.K.GOVERNMENT,VIAMICHELIN,DFDSSEAWAYS,STATENSJARNVAGAR, FLIXBUS, GOOGLE FLIGHTSGetting From Oslo to Copenhagen
TravelstatisticsperpassengerTravel time
0 hoursCost
$Carbon
emissions
0 kg/kmFlight
◀Train
◀
18 hours$0.2 kg/kmBus
◀Car* Walk-on ferry passengerIt’s hard for airlines to push back, as there’s
littletheycandotoreducetheircarbonfoot-
print.While manufacturershaveintroduced
moreefficientjetsinrecentyears,CO2 outputper
passenger mile remains at least quadruple that for
trains.Andthousandsofoldermodelsareinser-
vicebecauseplanestypicallyflyfordecadesbefore
beingretired.Carbonoffsets—paying someone to
plant trees or otherwise reduceorabsorbCO2—
canhelpeasepassengers’conscience,butfewpeo-
pleusethem,andeveryflightstillcreatestonsof
carbondioxide. With breakthroughs such as elec-
tricorhybridjetsunlikelytoseecommercialser-
vicebeforethe2030s,a quicktechnologicalfixfor
theCO 2 problem is improbable, says Tim Clark,
CEO of Emirates. “In the next couple of decades,
we might see some short-haul aircraft” with hybrid
engines, he said at a September conference in
London. “But with long-haul, it’s much more diffi-
cult.” �William Wilkes, with Stefan Nicola