Flight-shaming hits home

01 Nov 2019

SOUTH African

air travellers are

demanding carbon

emission measures

from local airlines

following increased

awareness of the

northern European ‘flightshaming’ movement that

discourages air travel for

environmental reasons.

“A lot of customers

are asking us what

we are doing to offset

carbon emissions. In

the last few weeks

we had about five big

corporate customers

and other customers

on social media asking

what we are doing in

this regard,” Comair joint

ceo, Wrenelle Stander,

said. The airline was

addressing its carbon

emissions through its

ongoing fleet renewal

programme and was

beginning to monitor

and measure its carbon

emissions, she said.

SAA acting ceo,

Zuks Ramasia, said

the airline had set

up a “sustainability

department” that looked

at offsetting its carbon

emissions in line with

its participation in Iata’s

Carbon Offsetting and

Reduction Scheme for

International Aviation.

Corsia aims to stabilise

CO2 emissions at 2020

levels. From January this

year, airlines operating

international routes

have to monitor and

report their annual fuel

consumption emissions.

Iata’s Paul Steele told

TNW that Iata would soon

launch an awareness

campaign called ‘Fly

Aware’, to ensure that

the public had the right

information when making

choices when travelling.

“The reality is that

aviation contributes 2%

to climate change. In

2010 we set an objective

of improving our fuel

efficiency by 1,5% every

year. Between 2010 and

2020 we’re tracking at

2,3%, so we’ve overdelivered.”