Is the climate on aviation in the USA changing?

[mailchimp_signup][/mailchimp_signup]At a conference last month, the head of the Federal Aviation Administration Marion Blakey said airlines should watch out for a reaction against air travel by a number of travellers. “More and more environmentalists in Europe are calling aviation ‘a rogue industry’, lumped together alongside big tobacco,” she said. “It’s presumptious to assume it won’t happen here.”

However, Blakey has been critical of Europe’s plans to include non-EU aircraft in the ETS. “Trying to force a European solution on the world given the different aviation sectors, economic circumstances and environmental issues is unworkable, not to mention illegal,” she said.

The Bush Administration’s transport secretary Mary Peters told the House of Representatives last month that the USA would “push back very hard on the EU on this”.

A survey of executives from American airlines showed just 5% of them viewed the environment as a significant challenge, compared with 34% of European airline executives.

This news story is taken from the June 2007 edition of T&E Bulletin.