Airlines in Europe have applied for €12.8bn (£11.3bn) government support since the start of the coronavirus pandemic with no binding environmental conditions attached, according to an analysis of the sector’s bailout pleas.
By Tuesday this week, airlines including easyJet, Scandinavian Airlines and Tui had secured loans and other financial support amounting to €3.36bn. A further €9.47bn is being sought by other airlines, data tracking by Transport & Environment, Greenpeace and Carbon Watch reveals.
By the time air travel came to a near halt in March, greenhouse gas emissions from the sector had reached record levels. But there are no binding environmental conditions being attached to any of the already agreed bailouts or future loans being sought.
The exception is in Austria, where the transport minister, Leonore Gewessler, responded to a request for public support by Austrian Airlines (part of the Lufthansa group) by saying any bailout should be linked to climate targets.
The amounts being negotiated for bailout plans and recapitalisation are likely to increase as talks continue with some of the biggest European airlines, including Air France, KLM, Lufthansa, British Airways and Alitalia.
The Committee on Climate Change says cutting greenhouse gas emissions to zero by 2050 is necessary, affordable and desirable. Here are some of the actions needed to make that happen:
• Petrol and diesel cars banned from sale ideally by 2030 and 2035 at the latest.
• Quadrupling clean electricity production from wind, solar and perhaps nuclear, plus batteries to store it and connections to Europe to share the load.
• Connection of new homes to the gas grid ending in 2025, with boilers using clean hydrogen or replaced by electric powered heat pumps. Plus, all homes and appliances being highly efficient.
• Beef, lamb and dairy consumption falling by 20%, though this is far lower than other studies recommend and a bigger shift to plant-based diets would make meeting the zero target easier.
• A fifth of all farmland – 15% of the UK – being converted to tree planting and growing biofuel crops and restoration of peat bogs. This is vital to take CO2 out of the air to balance unavoidable emissions from cattle and planes.
• 1.5bn new trees will be needed, meaning more than 150 football pitches a day of new forests from now to 2050.
• Flying would not be banned, but the number of flights will depend on how much airlines can cut emissions with electric planes or biofuels.
In the UK, Virgin’s Richard Branson has come under fire for seeking a £565m bailout from the government. He has been told to explore other ways of getting cash before seeking state aid but environmental conditions have not been at the forefront of government comments on the bailout plea.
EasyJet, which has secured a £600m emergency loan from the UK government, emitted 4.1% more CO2 in 2019 than in 2018.
Andrew Murphy, the aviation manager for Transport & Environment, said: “Airlines are seeking public money so they can get back to the business-as-usual of soaring emissions enabled by light-touch pollution laws and tax exemptions.
“It’s time to ensure that aviation makes a green transition by linking aid to taxes and greener fuels which will reverse the sector’s rapid emissions growth.”
Aviation is one of the fastest growing contributors to greenhouse gas emissions over the past 20 years. In the last five years there has been a 26% rise in GHG emissions from aviation.
Last year, Ryanair joined coal plants as one of Europe’s top 10 polluters after increasing its emissions on flights within the continent by 5.9%.
A global scheme run by the UN to offset aviation emissions that grow above 2020 levels, known as Corsia, began this year, but airlines are seeking delays and changes to it as a result of the coronavirus crisis.
The analysis published on Wednesday reveals that five of the airlines seeking or receiving state aid as a result of the Covid 19 pandemic have earned more than €1bn in net profits in the past five years. These include IAG, which owns British Airways (€9.37bn profit), Lufthansa group (€8.17bn), Tui group (€3.09bn), easyJet (€2.39bn) and Air France-KLM (€1.05bn). Airlines do not pay fuel taxes or VAT on flights.
Faiza Oulahsen, from Greenpeace EU, said: “Public bailouts must come with strict conditions to protect jobs and slash the aviation sector’s soaring contribution to climate breakdown.
“Any public funding should lay the foundation for a just and green transition for people and planet, with widespread investment in transport alternatives like trains. Governments must address both the economic impacts of the Covid-19 crisis and the crisis we face in climate change.”
