Air New Zealand CEO Rob Fyfe called for ICAO to end “its paralysis” on forging an international agreement on cutting airline emissions, while he also criticised “money grabbing” governments intent on levying international airlines with emissions taxes.
Speaking at the Greener Skies conference in Hong Kong on October 6, Fyfe criticised the ongoing debate over appropriate emissions reductions targets while little was being done practically. “These policy discussions and the hand-wringing over agreeing emission reduction targets are interminable and they are distracting us from the far more important focus of taking action. This is simply a travesty.”
Air New Zealand is widely regarded as a leader in cutting industry emissions, including using one of its Boeing 747-400s for a biofuel test flight last year.
Separately, Fyfe noted that Air New Zealand was starting to see a recovery in demand, although it does not expect yield to improve until the end of 2010. He added that the carrier was not planning to make any more capacity cuts in the immediate future.
