Peak Oil is You
Donate Bitcoins ;-) or Paypal :-)
Page added on June 14, 2010
Air travel in 2050 will be safe, clean and delay-free, says industry
Under the organization’s Vision 2050 plan, in 40 years the world’s airlines will be “very close to zero accidents” and emitting half the carbon with the help of locally-produced biofuels from jatropha, camelina, algae or even urban waste, which could “break the tyranny of oil.”
“Today’s jet fuel cannot sustain our industry,” said Bisignani, “our biggest opportunity is biofuels with the potential to reduce our carbon footprint by 80 percent.”
After test flights from several airlines, certification of biofuel-powered flights is expected within a year, he added.
Consumers will also be traveling with almost no delays, he predicted, suggesting that a consolidation of air traffic control services (resulting in ten global organizations instead of 180 currently) will make air travel far more efficient.
IATA believes that the current system of air traffic control, where countries are responsible for their own airspace, wastes some 16 million tonnes of CO2 every year in delays and indirect routings in Europe alone.
Bisignani also described the recent disruption to global travel caused by ash from the Eyjafjallajokull volcano as a “wake-up call” and a “reminder that without air connectivity, modern life is not possible.”
5 Comments on "Air travel in 2050 will be safe, clean and delay-free, says industry"
KenZ300 on Mon, 14th Jun 2010 10:12 pm
The sooner the Airlines transition to alternative fuels the better.
The Airline industry will go broke as the price of fuel rises. They need to start the transition now before the price of fuel puts them in bankruptcy.
Pythor Sehn on Tue, 15th Jun 2010 7:18 am
They’ll go broke because they won’t start the transition until it is too late. That is human nature. The result will be that airlines largely disappear, especially from middle class reach, and will return to the luxury item they once were. Consequently, huge swaths of airline-dependent businesses and jobs will disappear. Even if they did attempt a transition, the only thing that exists to replace fossil fuels in airlines is wishful thinking. There’s no algae oil being produced commercially anywhere in the world today at anything other than relatively minute quantities. I so no future for the airline industry.
Andy on Tue, 15th Jun 2010 10:44 am
The air industry will never ‘escape the tyranny of oil’ using biofuels or any petroleum alternative as the price will always be linked to the oil price for just that reason, it is a substitute. That’s also why encouraging biofuels is dangerous, as it links the price of food to the price of oil. If the oil price rises, so does the price of food. Manageable for the rich of the world, but means starvation for the poor.
James on Wed, 16th Jun 2010 9:25 am
The airlines are living in a fantasy world. First, biofuels haven’t been perfected in any sense of the imagination. They are just praying that someone will come up with an inexpensive, alternative to petroleum based jet fuel. Second, Most biological produced fuels require immense amounts of fertilizers to grow the feedstock for the fuels. Otherwise we will risk burning up our soils. There is a decline in progress for natural gas which is the feedstock for fertilizers. All the biological fuels won’t be produced at the rate that will be needed by everything that is now powered by Crude Oil. I hope you like eating less since the production of these fuels takes away from the food supply we enjoy now. The airlines must face the fact that their future is very dismal. Maybe they should considar investing in the railroads, and seagoing ships before its too late.
Edpeak on Fri, 18th Jun 2010 3:24 am
Airports and flying:
1. Sitting and waiting and sitting and waiting in the airport. Delays. Weather delays, etc.
2. The smell of jet fuel making me nauseous
3. luggage either lost or delayed or at best, walking around a large airport, then waiting around for the luggage
4. cruddy meals in cramped seats
Need I go on? Other than “get there really really quickly” there is nothing to miss, about flying, just GOOD RIDDANCE. In the few cases where it’s really critical (rescue operations, diplomats, rare conference where you don’t tele-conference) do it, otherwise, skip flying. Just like getting stuck in traffic or long long commutes, who needs them? We spend so much time worrying about “what if we can’t continue” that we forget to look at the many many ways the status quo Sucks. So let’s keep those “sucky” aspects of business as usual and the status quo in mind, while we work to pressure government nationally and locally to build alternative transportation paradigms