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Carbon-neutral flying already technically feasible, says German transport expert
(EurActiv, 4 Nov 2019) In an interview with EURACTIV Germany, Matthias von Randow, the Chief Executive Officer of the Federal Association of the German Transport Industry, spoke about carbon-neutral aviation fuels and the difficulties of rolling them out on a mass scale.
Matthias von Randow is Chief Executive Officer of the Federal Association of the German Air Transport Industry. The association represents the interests of airlines, airports, German air traffic control and other service providers in German air traffic.
Are there more flights today than there were ten years ago?
The number of passengers has risen significantly worldwide because people in many countries are becoming increasingly affluent. Just think of countries such as China, India or Brazil. The number of German domestic flights, on the other hand, has declined by 22% since 2004. This is because our airlines were able to shift air traffic to rail wherever possible, and larger aircraft were used on individual routes.
There are repeated calls to ban domestic German flights, most recently from the Greens. What do you think about that?
Such ideas are out of touch with reality. Instead, we are relying on the railways to offer attractive travel times. Then we can shift domestic air traffic to rail for train journeys where the travel time does not exceed around three hours.
In the meantime, this means that flights will mainly only be operated on long routes in Germany or, in individual cases, on feeder flights for international routes. Besides, domestic German air traffic only accounts for 0.3% of the total CO2 emissions in Germany.
EurActiv, 4 Nov 2019: Carbon-neutral flying already technically feasible, says German transport expert
