No one except extremists are calling for a ban on air travel
At present but, from the rather selfish perspective of someone who has spent a lifetime in this industry: an industry which supports either directly or indirectly millions of jobs around the world, I agree with the thread-starter's contention that this is indeed the biggest challenge facing us. If the chattering classes begin to regard flying in the same way as, say, smoking or not driving with seat belts were / are regarded, the repercussions for all of us in this business could be swift and painful. A drop of just a few percentage points in passenger air travel will push a number of airlines into immediate bankruptcy throwing thousands out of work and, if the trend continued, the industry would become all but financially unviable. So who would care? Well, everybody - including the chattering classes - should care and, as others have suggested, it's high time the industry started putting its arguments forward. Some suggestions:
- Aviation is already pouring billions into reducing its carbon foot print: aircraft and engine manufacturers are pushing the boundaries of science to reduce fuel burn and emissions (for cost reasons too of course, but interests coincide . . )
- There are thousands of research projects into the electrification of air transport flying but the technology isn't there . . .yet
- Air transport and, arguably, sea transport, are really the only industries using fossil fuels that, for the foreseeable future, cannot use anything else. EVERYTHING else: road, rail, industry, lighting, heating could, theoretically be powered by non-polluting means - so that's where the emphasis should be
- Civil air transport generates significant prosperity across the world: including for nations with little but tourism to sustain them
- Civil air transport is a huge contributor to the maintenance of world peace and the prevention of conflict: the more the peoples of the world meet and get to know each other, the less likely they are to want to kill each other (well, mostly)
And finally, if you are to reduce flying, how will it be done: most likely through taxation with the consequence that only the self-indulgent chatters will still be able to go for long weekends in Tuscany while the hoi polloi won't be able to afford their annual two weeks in the sun.
Everyone in this industry should start getting messages like these out there before it's all too late.