Dutch Airline KLM calls for people to fly less.

In what that can be termed controversial by Aviation enthusiast, Dutch airline KLM has launched a campaign asking people to fly less. The video and open letter from CEO Pieter Elbers asks: “Do you always have to meet face-to-face?” and “Could you take the train instead?”

The campaign aims to encourage travellers and the aviation industry to consider the environmental impact of flying. It describes the “shared responsibility” of travellers and airlines to “fly more responsibly”, and says those in the industry need to “create a sustainable future for aviation”.
The aviation industry accounts for an estimated 2%-3% of the manmade CO2 emissions in the world – a figure that is expected to increase with growing population, trade and wealth. KLM’s message comes at a time when the flight-shaming movement is becoming more influential and there is a rise in holidays by rail.

Airline passenger growth is also at its lowest in more than three years, according to a traffic report by European airport trade association Airports Council International Europe(May 2019, at +3.1%).
The KLM campaign, which marks the airline’s 100th anniversary, calls on passengers to consider train travel for shorter distances and to replace face-to-face meetings with video calls. It also suggests packing lightly to reduce baggage weight so that planes uses less fuel, and to consider offsetting CO2 emissions. The airline’s carbon-offset programme (CO2zero) uses passenger contributions for reforestation projects, including a new tropical forest in Panama.

However, critics have suggested that instead of asking the public to be aware of their actions, KLM, and other airlines, need to be considering solutions that lie with the industry itself. Justin Francis, founder of Responsible Travel, has called carbon-offsetting a “a dangerous distraction” from reducing emissions.

The airline acknowledges that the most impactful change would be to use sustainable fuel, which its research suggests would reduce CO2 emissions from each flight by up to 85%. The airline itself is using 57 times more biofuel than in 2011, including for commercial flights, and is working towards developing a sustainable aviation fuel plant, which would run on organic waste including cooking oil and residue from other industries in the Netherlands and Benelux region. KLM said its sustainability initiatives have, so far, led to a relative reduction of 17% in CO2-emissions per passenger in 2018, compared with 2011.

The climate crisis has led France to announce the introduction of an eco-tax on tickets for all flights leaving the country. The new tax will range from €1.50 for short-haul and up to €18 for long-haul in business class. At a press conference, transport minister Élisabeth Borne, said that €180m is expected to be raised annually from 2020, which will help finance daily transport in France, notably rail.

KLM has stated it is against this type of national CO2 aviation tax, because it believes Dutch passengers would travel by car to neighbouring countries, and continue to fly from there. On the company’s website, it says: “A global approach makes more sense. If the tax is implemented, we believe that it should be invested in sustainability of the aviation industry. National taxes will just go into the national coffers and won’t do anything to combat climate change.”