Recently in Aero-politics Category

Daniel Elwell of the US FAA was before the US Congress yesterday to update legislators on progress on cutting emissions. He talked up air traffic management advances, which I think is absolutely right, but rather spoiled the effect with some frankly flaky stuff about how US airlines had cut emissions more than EU carriers. Here is his testimony.

I realise he has to play to his audience, but this really doesn't help advance aviation's cause. No doubt US airlines will cut their emissions a whole lot more than EU carriers in future too - hard not to when you've still got a goodly number of DC-9s rattling around!

Elwell, by the way, is assistant administrator, office of aviation policy, planning and environment. And he was addressing the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee's aviation sub-committee. Other parts of the hearing were blogged by Evan Sparks, whose blog I've only just discovered.

Alexander ter Kuile, the thoughtful secretary general of the Civil Air Navigation Services Organisation (CANSO), is known for his concern over the industry's weak record on getting its message into the mainstream. (I'm completely with him on that.)

He still sees an "increasingly harsh and sometimes ill-informed debate" but tells delegates: "We have started the long road of seeking public approval for our plans to grow."

Like other speakers he notes that air transport growth is outstripping its ability to cut emissions in the near-term and urges everyone to be "transparent and ethical" about that and other matters. He says the industry should "by-pass governments and pressure groups and talk to the flying public" - although it's not at all clear what mechanism he has in mind.

Following the furore over a near-empty American Airlines' transatlantic flight, now it's British Airways in the firing line. The exact circumstances that led to these BA flights operating empty aren't completely clear from the report in the Daily Telegraph of London.