Who will keep the party going?

Last week we spoke to a few leading organisations working in the aviation industry to name a few IATA and EBAA. It is understood that the aviation industry is fully in crisis, predictions ranging from a 2 year recovery to up to 5 years to recover. There are certain planes (A380, B747) that won’t fly again so the industry will look different coming out of COVID-19 without a doubt.

Will we see greener aviation after recovery?

Although the European Commissioner for Transport Adina Vălean has recently stated that it is not the time to condition state aid for airlines on green measures, Austrian airlines have attached green conditions to bailouts and KLM/ Air France have been given €10 billion bail out, Minister Bruno Le Maire on Friday saying “is not a blank check”. The company will also be required to become “the most environmentally friendly company on the planet”. The Dutch Government saying they are supporting the Air France-KLM Group through these difficult times with the view to recover its competitiveness consistent with strong sustainable development commitments.

Green bailouts  are thought of as a tricky to commit to with so much uncertainty right now. The US have not attached conditions and have put $25 billion into aviation. Virgin is at risk. Delta is bailed out. IAG have reserves. In Europe it seems that Ryanair, Wizz Air, easyJet and IAG are in the strongest positions right now it has been discussed. 

An interesting article describing the technicalities of scaling fleets back into flight mode was described be Lauren Uppink Calderwood at World Economic Forum in Conde Nast Traveler last week which describes the complexity of the process, a definite good to know when considering the scale of the task at hand. And discussion seems to indicate that ticket prices are likely to go up due to social distancing rules and initial nervousness to fly. Although some airlines, like Ryanair have already said that they will not resume flights if they have to keep middle seats empty to fight COVID-19.

It was said this week that Fly Green Alliance might be a little early to the party but in conversation we said we will keep the party going. This was our founders personal pledge 7 months ago on linkedin.

How has grounding affected increasing the supply and production of sustainable aviation fuel (SAF)?

It is understood that the aviation industry can not pay 3 times the price of fossil fuel for SAF, and even more so now due to crisis and oil prices never being lower. The price of oil and diversification being discussed in Recharge by Head of the Energy Research Alliance.

We had already switched our thinking to aim for gaining joint financial responsibility between the airlines, corporate customers and hopefully in time government incentives.

We realised we needed to support the industry to green not to negate it but to get to a position where we can provide fuel for the airlines through a joint commitment to pay the premium, a commitment including policy change, a commitment from corporate travellers and then ask the airlines to partly pay for SAF too.

We are transparent by nature with our work so this is a call out for green recovery so that when the corporate travellers are ready to travel again that they travel smart , FGA Travel Smart™, that they support the airlines recover and work to meet 2050 targets to reduce their own emissions from travel but also to get SAF into the tanks of the planes. As traffic was predicted to double by 2036 ,due to our global increased travel and business, this is an immense task for the industry. We now know how much we miss travel or need it but also how cleaner things can be. Let’s work towards being smarter about this.

As Airlines for Europe said #Weareinthistogether.  We are.

A cross-sector collaboration is required. So we’re looking for the early adopters, innovators, futurists, optimists, green recovery activists, thinkers and problem solvers. We need you to plant some seeds. We need drive, vision and understanding. We need you to keep the party going.

#vision #FGAtravelsmart #keepthepartygoing #reset #recalibrate