Five ways for governments to green airline bailouts

(Climate Home News, 7 May 2020) It’s a horrible time to be in the airline business.

The coronavirus pandemic has taught us new lessons about the vulnerability of airlines to disruption. A 70% reduction in scheduled flights year over year has led most of the world’s airlines to the brink of solvency virtually overnight.

Now, governments are mobilising to bail them out.

The US coronavirus relief act (Cares Act) directed $50 billion to keep US carriers afloat through September 2020. France recently announced a €7 billion bailout of Air France with some environmental conditions, including that the airline cut its carbon intensity by 10% from today’s levels in 2030, halve CO2 emissions from flights within mainland France, and use at least 2% of alternative jet fuel by 2025.

And civil society is mobilising to track the bailouts.

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Climate Home News, 7 May 2020: Five ways for governments to green airline bailouts