Ryanair, the low-cost carrier, turned no-frills air travel into an art form. The indignities are many — paying extra for everything from hold luggage or having to use a toilet slightly smaller than the average coffin. But passengers couldn’t complain about the base price.
But according to Michael O’Leary, the airline’s charismatic chief executive, the era of the trademark €1 or €10 ticket is over. Due to the rising cost of jet fuel, Ryanair’s average fare is set to rise over the next five years by as much as 25 per cent. Of course the cost of flying has fallen significantly since the dawn of the jet age, but with it the sector’s carbon emissions have risen dramatically. Indeed, if aviation were a nation, it would rank among the top 10 emitters — ahead of the UK.
Covid-19 has proven a mere blip. According to the International Civil Aviation Organisation, emissions could grow by 300 to 700 per cent by 2050. There are ambitious-sounding plans to reduce the environmental impact of air travel, including accelerating the roll-out of bio-fuels and ultimately to electric technology for short-haul destinations. But these have faced criticism for lacking credibility. The truth is, at present, flying is one of the single most carbon-intensive activities any of us undertake.
But it is not done so equally. One per cent of the world’s population accounts for 50 per cent of the carbon dioxide emissions from aviation. While higher fuel prices will directly impact the price of a ticket, and clearly there is a place for government intervention to help bring cleaner technologies, this should not be about punishing families who go away once a year for a summer break.
The focus should be on those flying multiple times a year — the super-emitters.
Heading off the rails
It is not quite approaching the point where it would be more time-efficient to check when the trains are running, rather than when they are closed due to strikes, but it is also not far off.
The threatened four days of rail and Tube strikes starting this weekend will bring all the usual chaos and disruption to people’s lives. It is due to start on Saturday, with train drivers’ union Aslef staging a walkout, affecting networks including London Overground, Southeastern and Greater Anglia, before a Tube strike the following Friday.
It is also set to deliver a £120 million blow to London’s economy, just as the country faces a long recession. GDP figures for June are due to be published tomorrow with economists expecting to see a reversal of May’s growth of 0.5 per cent. Given the parlous state of TfL’s finances, the next stop on the path to higher wages should not be industrial action but negotiation and compromise.
Goodbye Pork Pie?
Britain’s culture war took a devastating turn this week, after animal rights group Peta wrote to Leicester mayor Sir Peter Soulsby to ask that the city’s Pork Pie Island roundabout be renamed.
It would be easy to denounce this as pious zeal or a pile of nonsense, but a plant-based diet has been shown to have numerous health benefits.
The science is less clear on its impact on circular intersections, for which pi remains a vital consideration.
