Communication in Air Transport, Still Progress to Be Made

It is always interesting to attend international conferences, especially if, like the recent World Connect, they bring together participants from 92 countries, i.e. from all over the world. This avoids always revolving around the same subjects.

The first observation is that the European continent stands out from the others by its attraction to environmental issues. For several years now, this subject has been strongly permeating air transport communication. It is underlying all the press releases and no serious intervention can avoid mentioning it. This is not the case for other continents, which are happy to free themselves from this constraint. The explanation is probably due to geography. Europe is a small continent, largely equipped with efficient land transport. The railway has become a real competitor to the plane and we recognize that this mode has been widely supported by governments against the air force. We even see some countries draining carriers with taxes that will be intended to improve the economy of its main land competitor, all in the name of ecology which has become the major reference and the supreme argument for the choice of mode of transport.

This aspect of communication is little used outside Europe. It is striking to see the extent to which air transport has become a real necessity elsewhere while it is denigrated on this continent. Its main use is freedom, as the President of Georgia has put it. Without air transport, countries are landlocked and at the mercy of more or less well-intentioned neighbours. So ecology really takes a back seat to this absolute necessity. In all other countries outside Europe, air transport is a factor of safety and economic prosperity, even if it is still used by only a small part of their population.
Of course, the environmental aspect cannot be set aside in communication, but it is still necessary to see who you are addressing. Governments can at any time be drawn into the demagoguery that consists of using air transport to preserve the planet, which is very practical to avoid confronting much more polluting sectors. Food waste is said to represent 6% of pollution, and clothing 7%, but confronting practices that are widespread among the population is not very electoral. So, instead of having a defensive communication, air transport would be well advised to insist on its technical progress and its practices that constantly aim to emit less CO², if only because the less air pollution pollutes, the more profitable it is. It should be noted that despite global growth of around 5% for half a century, while global growth is almost half as low, it manages to remain below 3% of total CO² emissions.

In fact, it would be wise for the aviation group, made up of manufacturers, airports and carriers, to speak with one voice by emphasizing the considerable progress made and those on which it is working successfully. I am thinking of traffic regulation and a much better use of airspace, which will be effective in the next few years. On the other hand, it would be better not to lie by announcing carbon neutrality by 2050 when all professionals know that it is impossible, which is not a reason not to work on it.

And then one day we will have to stop communicating about rates that do not cover the costs. Even if they are very little used in practice and if they are built so that customers are led to buy additional services, they do a real damage in the communication of air transport by giving the impression that it has no or little value since you can buy a London-Seville for 29 € for example. This race to see who can announce the lowest price is stupid and it is not by filling planes beyond what is reasonable that we will ensure the sustainability of air transport. It will have to make a colossal technological leap to face the next century. It will cost fantastic amounts of money in the hundreds or even thousands of billions of dollars. And who will pay for these investments? Simply the customers for whom the rates will certainly increase.

So we might as well address the general public, explain the issues and seriously start to make them aware of the financial constraints that will have to be faced in exchange for an ever-improving aerial product.