Virgin Group chairman British billionaire Richard Branson proposed a plan Wednesday to cut aviation emissions at busy airports, starting at London’s Gatwick Airport.
Branson, who last week committed to spending all the profits from his airline and rail businesses to combat global warming, is lobbying airlines and airports to consider his cross-industry proposal to slash emissions.
He proposed “starting grids” be set up at major airports which would allow a plane to be towed from its stand by a small tug closer to the runway before takeoff, reducing the time engines are running.
At a press conference in New York, Branson said Gatwick would serve as a testing ground “as soon as possible.”
“We’re talking about tens of millions of tons of CO2 saved around the world and one of the first responses I got to this idea was from the head of Gatwick, Paul Griffiths, who said ’let’s go for it, we’d love to have Gatwick be one of the greenest airports in the world,”’ Branson said
Gatwick, the busiest single-runway airport in the world, handles about 32 million passengers a year.
Officials at Gatwick’s parent company BAA Plc declined to comment but said they would issue a statement Thursday.
Using starting gates, rather than the current practice of keeping a plane’s engines running from push-back to take-off, would cut fuel consumption and on-the-ground carbon emissions for Virgin Atlantic aircraft by more than 50 percent at London’s Heathrow Airport and almost 90 percent at New York’s John F. Kennedy airport, Branson said earlier.
At present, aircraft have to carry about two tons of extra fuel just to cover this waiting period, he said.
Branson also brought on board California’s Republican governor, Arnold Schwarzenegger, who signed legislation Wednesday aimed at cutting pollution that contributes to global warming.
Schwarzenegger offered Los Angeles, the world’s fifth busiest airport, as a test-site.
“I’m ready, I’ll just wait for you to come out here and then we will meet the different people that are in charge of the Los Angeles airport and make a move in this direction,” he told Branson via videoconference.
Branson’s proposal also included a more fuel-efficient way for planes to land. He said airlines can also reduce the weight of planes by using lighter materials and even removing empty champagne and beer bottles before take-off.
“If they do so, up to 25 percent of the world’s aviation emissions can be cut,” Branson said, adding that 150 million tons of carbon emissions a year could be saved through such measures.
Branson has also created Virgin Fuels, which will invest $400 million over three years in renewable energy initiatives.
International aviation is not covered by the Kyoto Protocol on climate change but its emissions are projected to grow, causing concern among environmentalists, especially as the low-cost airline sector booms in Europe.
The European Commission has proposed including airlines in an emissions trading scheme, where industries trade rights to emit carbon dioxide, the main gas blamed by most scientists for global warming.
