'Carbon trading system will fail'

Pessimism and fear is gripping the airline industry as it wrestles with some daunting problems. These include fuel costs and a US economic slowdown, but the issue that attracts the most anger is the European Union's determination to introduce what airline executives say is an unworkable carbon trading system.

This frustration stems from the belief that not only is the proposed system onerous, but also will fail to offer protection from the environment and simply line government pockets.

Rather than introducing new taxes, industry chiefs say Europe should focus on making the Single European Sky a reality.

This would see European air traffic control managed under one umbrella, instead of 37 separate sovereign air traffic control systems in operation at present. A single operator would reduce ground delays and enable more direct flying, which would improve flying efficiency by up to 12 per cent, according to the International Air Transport Association.

By failing to introduce the Single European Sky, 12m tonnes of CO2 are being added to the atmosphere every year, the IATA claims. However, as an agreement of military and civilian chiefs of all participating countries is mandatory to implement a single European air traffic controller, a solution seems far away.