Aviation industry defies environmental pressure

The results of a government survey into consumer attitudes to flying shows that nearly half of consumers would be happy to pay more to offset environmental impacts.

The survey, released today by the Department for Transport (DFT), revealed that despite growing publicity around the impact of aviation on climate change, consumers ranked cost as a significantly more important factor than environmental damage when it comes to reasons not to fly.

Only one per cent of the 1,000-plus people interviewed for the survey cited environmental concerns as a reason to reduce air travel. However, in a similar survey in 2006, no respondents mentioned the environment as a reason not to fly.

While rising costs and the economic downturn will affect the aviation industry to some degree, about 22 per cent of respondents said they planned to take more flights than the previous year. Of those who said they would make more flights or the same number, about 57 per cent said they would take more flights if they were able – showing that environmental concerns are still not swaying many consumers.

But despite claiming that environmental issues will not deter them from flying, about 66 per cent of respondents agreed that air travel does harm the environment. However, although environmental groups have been campaigning hard to highlight the link between flying and climate change, the number of people who agreed that flying contributes to climate change this year has actually gone down from 70 per cent in 2006.

In a move that runs contrary to the push towards budget airlines and lower fares, about 40 per cent of people surveyed by the DFT said that they would be prepared to pay more for flights to compensate for the environmental effects. Of this group, 29 per cent said they would be prepared to pay up to 20 per cent more for the price of a ticket. However, this figure was down on the 50 per cent who said they would be prepared to pay 20 per cent more in a 2006 survey.

When contacted about the report's findings, a spokesman for British Airways said the airline was the first to offer customers the chance to offset their flight emissions and has redesigned its scheme to make it more user-friendly. " Aviation is playing its full part in controlling its CO2 emissions, but its share of global emissions is small – less than two per cent. Road transport contributes six times more and power generation 16 times more," he said in a statement.

Late last week, European authorities formally approved an earlier decision to include aviation in the EU Emission Trading Scheme from 2012. The aviation industry remains firmly opposed to its inclusion in the scheme and believes the EU should instead focus on improving air traffic control regimes to shorten flight journeys and increase support for research and development into more fuel-efficient aircraft.