Bisignani warns against illegal EU emissions scheme
IATA Director General Giovanni Bisignani told Arabian Aerospace that he does not expect the EU emissions trading scheme (ETS) to start in 2012 as scheduled owing to legal challenges
Speaking in Bahrain at the weekend, Bisignani said that he knew of seven airlines that were already mounting legal battles against the scheme and reiterated that international aviation’s inclusion in the EU ETS was “simply illegal”.
All airlines serving EU airports have been required to submit by now emissions monitoring plans to their allocated Competent Authority and had to start monitoring and reporting their traffic and emissions data from 1 January 2010. Following advice from both IATA and ATA, airlines opposed to the EU ETS have so far “complied under protest”.
Legal action cannot be taken against the EU itself, only by one state against another and as the UK has now transposed into law the first stage regulations of the EU Directive it has become the target
“ATA filed the legal action in the UK challenging the first stage of the Aviation Greenhouse Gas Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) Regulations,” said ATA spokesperson Victoria Day. “We brought this action in order to preserve our members’ rights to challenge implementation of the EU ETS as applied to aviation and we continue to believe that the best resolution of this issue is through international negotiations or an action brought through the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO).”
Arab airlines have also spoken out against the ETS scheme.
Bisignani also warned goverments and airline workers not to get too optimistic about the apparent bottoming out of the slump that has hit air transport since the start of the latest global recession.
"There are still huge risks for this industry," he said. "The industry as a whole has lost an incredible $50 billion over the last ten years. Fuel is still around $79 a barrel.
"We have seen a recovery in passenger numbers which are up by 5% and 12% in freight. But these figures are still down on 2008 numbers.
"How are airlines going to handle the capacity challenge - we exopect 1400 new planes to be delivered this year from confirmed orders - Over capacity has driven down yields and then we are seeing $5billion a year being paid to Governments for user charges."
Bisignani said there is reason "for a little celebration" but airlines would still lose money this year. Even the rapidly growing Middle East market would see passenger numbers continue to grow by around 15% "but we expect losses of $400m" Bisignani said.
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