US & Europe clash over EU plan to charge airlines for carbon emissions

Europe & United States are headed for confrontation after the EU won key legal backing for its scheme to slap carbon emissions charges on all airlines in its airspace from January 1.

In Washington, the US Department of Transportation, said it "strongly objects, on both legal and policy grounds, to the EU's plan to impose its own policies on other countries airlines".

Not a criticism, but Im sure that profit after 9/11 wouldve included an insurance payout on aircraft which were written off/damaged, so its hard to assess what their actual profitability was.

Also, any idea on if UL is buying new long haul aircraft soon? I thought a decision was imminent.

Good observation.

But the chances are that the insurance money would have gone directly to the lessors or the debtors who paid for the aircrafts.

Not correct. And if you were at the controls, you would realise that it is not as easy to implement them as you can tell from an armchair CEO position - because you have so many stakeholders. But I refrain from entering into flame wars..

What does Air Asia X has to do with LHR slots; Air Asia X operates to Luton...

European Union Emissions Trading Scheme escalating air passenger duty taxes.

The implementation of the Emissions Trading Scheme escalating air passenger duty taxes in European Union members countries, which will rise yet again in April 2012, New taxes have forced many airlines to reduce or withdraw the services to Europe.

China bans airlines into EU carbon tax

China's airlines are not allowed to pay a charge on carbon emissions imposed by the European Union(EU), and neither to hike freights nor to add other fees accordingly without government permission, the Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC) said Monday.

"China objects to the EU's decision to impose the scheme on non-EU airlines, and has expressed its concerns over the scheme through various channels," the statement said.

"China will consider adopting necessary measures to protect interests of Chinese individuals and companies, pending the development of the issue," the statement said.

Sri Lankan gets contract to service IndiGo's aircraft

Sri Lankan Airlines Engineering has secured its largest contract this year to conduct maintenance checks for an Indian airline.

IndiGo, India's budget carrier with a fleet of 48 Airbus A320 airliners has awarded the contract to SriLankan Engineering to conduct C-checks on 26 Airbus A320 through 2012.

This is the fourth consecutive year IndiGo has outsourced to SriLankan and this year's contract is the largest overseas outsourcing of maintenance, repair and overhaul work by an Indian carrier.

EU carbon tax has nothing to do with LHR slots neither Chinese or North American Airlines selling any LHR slots because of EU carbon tax

EU aviation carbon tax fuels concerns, may go to U.N

Global planemaker Airbus joined a chorus of concern that a European scheme to charge airlines for carbon emissions risks triggering a full-blown trade war, with implications for plane deals and even Europe's crippling sovereign debt crisis.

The EU's Emissions Trading Scheme ETS.L, introduced on January 1, has drawn howls of protest from airlines around the world, with China banning its carriers from taking part.

The escalating row comes on the eve of a China-EU summit in Beijing, with the EU looking to China to dip into its huge foreign exchange reserves to help the eurozone tackle a debt build-up that threatens its economic stability.

Airbus (EAD.PA) Chief Executive Tom Enders said he was increasingly concerned at the potential fall-out if tensions are not defused.

"I am very worried about the consequences of that. What started out as a solution for the environment has become a source of potential trade conflict and that should be a worry for all of us," he told an aviation conference on Monday ahead of the Singapore Airshow.

Last week, Beijing banned its airlines from joining the ETS without its permission, and threatened to take unspecified measures to defend itself against the scheme, which levies charges for carbon emissions on flights in and out of Europe.

Foreign governments argue Brussels is exceeding its legal jurisdiction by calculating the carbon cost over the whole flight.

Singapore Airlines CEO Goh Choon Phong said opposition to the scheme was based on the way it is applied.

"I was quoting the example of us flying non-stop from Singapore all the way to Europe. We get charged the whole journey, when somebody who could fly passengers to an intermediate point, and from there go to Europe, ends up paying much less," he told the same aviation conference in Singapore.

Andrew Herdman, director general of the Association of Asia Pacific Airlines, said any European policy that alienates the United States, China, Russia, India and three dozen other countries.

During an industry panel discussion, Cathay Pacific CEO John Slosar took a senior European Commission official to task.

"You can't have it both ways. There's a difference between leadership and bludgeoning. You guys applied the latter, and now you're discovering it works both ways," he told Matthew Baldwin of the directorate-general for mobility and transport.

EU Transport Commissioner Siim Kallas acknowledged the growing opposition to the scheme, and said he was willing to be flexible in finding a solution, but the 27-nation bloc would not bow to pressure to suspend the scheme, which it says is part of a global fight against climate change.

Aviation accounts for around 3 percent of mankind's greenhouse gas pollution. The ICAO predicts the number of air passengers will hit 6 billion a year on scheduled services by 2030, roughly double today's level.

"Europe will implement its system with difficulties, with conflicts, with court cases, whatever, the system will be introduced," he said.

French Transport Minister Thierry Mariani said both Airbus and Air France (AIRF.PA) had expressed their concerns that the dispute should not be allowed to harm French competitiveness.

Some European airlines worry the scheme could backfire on them if foreign governments retaliate by limiting traffic rights or imposing tit-for-tat taxes and charges.

An analysis by Thomson Reuters Point Carbon last week shows airlines face a carbon pollution bill of 505 million euros for 2012 under the ETS.

A potential trade war comes as carriers and plane makers are vulnerable to the economic slowdown, with Boeing predicting global airline passenger growth will slow to 5 percent this year from around 6 percent last year.

With SriLankan Airlines management also part of the budget carrier Mihin Lanka, route planning has become better coordinated, a top official said. Nishantha Wickremesinghe, Chairman of SriLankan Airlines, told the Business Times that they carry out route planning between the two carriers together in order to avoid both flying to the same destination. He noted that Mihin Lanka would be flying to more low cost destinations and in this respect had selected to touchdown at Jakarta, Dhaka, Buddhagaya, Varnasi, Manila and Sharjah.

The budget carrier that was previously operating to Kuwait would be pulling out of this route in a bid to allow SriLankan Airlines to fly in and as a result its shift to Sharjah. Coordination of routes is also carried out whereby Mihin Lanka would fly into Manila that would carry passengers heading for the Middle East via Colombo. And once in Colombo, these passengers would be transported to their destinations on SriLankan Airlines, he explained.

In future, SriLankan Airlines would seek to operate increased flights that would ensure that by the end of next year the airline would operate daily flights to all its destinations. Aircraft would also be increased at SriLankan Airlines from the current 22 to 30 in the future that would eventually result in a young fleet replacing the old stock by 2015, Mr. Wickremesinghe said.

PIA will resume its operations to Colombo from 25th March.
3 weekly flights from Karachi and 2 weekly flights from Lahore.
Bookings now open.

any source?

This could be the outcome of recent meetings between top leadership of Pakistan and Sri Lanka.

SriLankan Airlines Summer 2012 Flight Schedule has now been loaded on the airline website for Reservation and Flight Information. Highlights of the Summer 2012 UL Route Network : -

- UL Flights between Male' and London, Tokyo and Zurich have been cancelled;
- Tokyo flights are increased from four to five flights a week;
- Beijing flights are increased from 4 to Daily, Shanghai flights are increased from 5 to Daily;
- Terminator flights are operating on Dubai and Kuwait;
- Kochi flights are increased from 7 weekly to double daily;
- Riyadh flights are increased from 2 to 5 weekly, Jeddah flights are increased from 2 to 3 weekly;
- Bahrain flights are increased from 3 to 5 weekly;
- London flights frequency is reduced from 13 weekly to 7 weekly;
- Milano will remain as UL's destination in S12.

Click - Flight Schedule

Please comment ...

Add ISB to the mix.. Though I cannot see any flights from KHI