Posted on 03/05/2008 6:28:39 AM PST by Entrepreneur
A major airline is under fire from environmentalists for flying an aircraft across the Atlantic with only five passengers on board.
American Airlines has been accused of reckless behaviour It led to American Airlines being accused of reckless behaviour by green lobby groups.
The latest “eco- scandal” flight took place on February 9 after American was forced to cancel one of its four daily services from Chicago to London.
While it was able to find places for nearly all the passengers on the fully-booked flight, five still had to be accommodated. Those who did fly were upgraded to the business class cabin.
But while they enjoyed lavish hospitality, the airline was accused of an “obscene waste of fuel” by Friends of the Earth.
“With such a small passenger load we did consider whether we could cancel the flight and re-accommodate the five remaining passengers on other flights.
“However, this would have left a plane load of west-bound passengers stranded in London Heathrow who were due to fly back to the US on the same aircraft.
Richard Dyer, Friends of the Earth’s transport campaigner said: “Flying virtually empty planes is an obscene waste of fuel. Through no fault of their own , each passenger’s carbon footprint for this flight is about 45 times what it would have been if the plane had been full.
“Governments must stop granting the aviation industry the unfair privileges that allow this to happen by taxing aviation fuel and including emissions from aviation in international agreements to tackle climate change.”
(Excerpt) Read more at telegraph.co.uk ...
When Al Gore, "Mr. Green" himself, was Vice-President, he would fly Air Force Two, a Boeing 707, from Washington D.C. to Nashville, Tennessee, on election day so he could make the roughly 100 mile round trip motorcade trip to Smith County so HE COULD VOTE!
Besides the monumental waste of taxpayer-bought aircraft fuel, the jerk's motorcade of government-fueled vehicles would tie up thousands of idling vehicles and police cars while he rode like a Roman Caesar on the interstate highways.
If he wasn't such an asshole and a hypocrite, he could have cast an absentee ballot, a tiny "carbon footprint," as a mere mortal might do.
No mention at all.
The hipocricy of the left is truely an amazing, mind blowing thing that never fails to astound me.
What is weird is that it doesn’t surprise me either.
If you look at it in terms of passenger-miles, the airplane is much more economical. CSX, the railroad, is actually running some very good commercials around here in which they state that while a hybrid that gets 50 mpg is nice, their trains can haul one ton of cargo 423 miles on one gallon of fuel. The locomotive doesn’t get 423 mpg, of course, but with hundreds or thousands of tons pulled along behind, it becomes extremely efficient.
}:-)4
-—Through no fault of their own , each passenger’s carbon footprint for this flight is about 45 times what it would have been if the plane had been full.
I love that statement. Hey genius...that aircraft is probably emitting virtually the same amount of pollution into the air whether it has 5 passengers or 300. Who cares what each passenger’s ‘carbon footprint’ is???
What you're saying is true, but it's not as emotionally satisfying..
He's an idiot. Let him spout. It just exposes him even more.
Also happened to me in the 70s from Chicago - Anchorage - Tokyo. 747 with maybe 20 passengers. It was nice — but eerie at the same time.
Anyone who has flown on a near-empty aircraft should realize this is usually the case.
I’m curious what the cargo mileage is on those mongo freight oceanliners. I bet it’s much better than trains. Still we need a speed to efficiency conversion formula to do these apple/orange compares. If an oceanliner or train or Toyota Prius ran at 500mph like an airliner their mileage would be astronomically terrible.
What a bunch of nut bags!
You suppose the idiots never heard of “backhaul”? Do they think all trucks and ships run 100% full all the time? Are the hundreds of container ships arriving from China all full of goods when they return from West Coast ports to China?
This is a perfect illustration why leftists cannot understand capitalism or be capitalists.
Deep down they’re just jealous that they weren’t on the flight .
They don’t like to, but airlines fly EMPTY planes from time to time.
What do you do when a plane is in Alaska and you need it in Chicago, but there are no passengers that want to go there? You fly it EMPTY. Truck drivers have the same conundrum. You drive from LA to Seattle with a load of lettuce and then hope to have something in your truck on the return trip.
These greenies are goofy and ignorant. I have found it is very productive to ignore the opinion of those ignorant of the subject on which they have an opinion.
That makes me think: what's the total carbon footprint of a national election, people traveling to polling sites. I would love to see voting by mail for the simple reason that a stamp would function as a poll tax. And putting the ballot properly into an envelope would function as an IQ test. If you try to charge a want-it-free Democrat 42 cents they just won't vote.
Richard Dyer, Friends of the Earth’s transport campaigner said: “Flying virtually empty planes is an obscene waste of fuel. Through no fault of their own , each passenger’s carbon footprint for this flight is about 45 times what it would have been if the plane had been full.
Mr Dyer, mind your own business. You mind your carbon foot print and let the rest of us mind ours.”
Sir;
Please go to your friends at ELF and speak to them about the complete waste of resources they caused this week when they burned down 6 large homes in one development.
Make no mistake, the homes will be rebuilt. That will now take twice the amount of materials.
The
Street of Dreams” admission money which goes to charity will not be going there this year. The recipients of that money must be VERY PROUD of ELF’s behavior and of your friends.
ELS, ALF, and others of their ilk are nothing more than terrorists. They need to see prison until they die.
Obviously, the new planes should be delivered by ship. Maybe design a “plane carrier” that stacks them like cars.
Oh, and what’s with flight-testing an empty plane? They should wait until the first commercially-sold flight to test it!
I once piloted a 14 hour flight to Africa with only one passenger on board. He was treated like royalty. The amazing thing is, the flight made money because of the absolutely critical 10,000 lbs. of cargo we were carrying.
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