BATA Sustainability

The UK airlines seek to balance their delivery of good air services with a responsible and considered approach to dealing with the environmental impacts of aviation. The following sections provide information on the economic and social contributions of air travel together with the environmental impacts and how they are being addressed.

The Social Value of Air Travel | Tax and Subsidy | Environmental Impacts

The Economic Contribution of Aviation to the UK

BATA was co-sponsor of a major study into the economic contribution of the industry by Oxford Economic Forecasting which was published in November 1999. It spelt out the following Key Economic Facts

Aviation is a major UK industry in its own right

Contributing £10.2 billion a year to UK GDP
generating 180,000 direct UK jobs
exporting £6.6 billion a year of services
investing £2.5 billion a year in the UK
contributing £2.5 billion a year to the Exchequer.

Aviation Supports UK businesses

generating and supporting 380,000 indirect and induced UK jobs
transporting £35 billion of UK exports
maintaining unrivalled access to global markets.

Aviation underpins UK competitiveness

growing four times faster than the UK economy
producing 2.5 times more output per worker than the national average
acting as a catalyst for growth in tourism and knowledge-based industries
attracting direct foreign investment.

The Social Value of Air Travel

Air travel also provides significant social benefits to the population at large.

In 1997, 7 million UK citizens traveled abroad on holiday. In 2002, that figure had risen to 38 million.
Inward tourism by air accounts for 80% of foreign visitor spending and contributes over £10 billion to the UK economy annually.

The social profile of air travel has changed as the real cost of air travel has reduced.

The majority of air journeys are taken by people in the C,D and E socio-economic groups (see Socio-Economic breakdown of Passengers in Industry Data).
In 2001, over 50% of the UK population took at least one trip by air.

Nor is air travel merely a leisure or business activity.

A growing number of air journeys, over a third of all non-business passengers from some airports, are made to visit family and friends (see Passenger Characteristics in Industry Data).

Tax and Subsidy

The industry if often accused of being subsidised or under-taxed. The actual tax and subsidy position of aviation in the UK is as follows:-

VAT Air travel, like all UK public transport modes is zero-rated for VAT.
Fuel Tax Aviation pays no fuel tax and other public transport modes are treated in a similar way. Diesel trains pay 6.44p/litre �red diesel� rate and buses get fuel duty rebate which results in an effective tax rate of less than 10p/litre. Rail is exempt from the climate change levy.
Air Passenger Duty (APD) Unique to air travel, APD raises over £900m p.a. (HMRC Bulletin Feb 2006) This is equivalent to over one and a half times the carbon cost of the flights on which it is levied. No income from this environmental tax is used to address environmental challenges and it is a very inefficient and ineffective approach to dealing with issues like climate change. See Environmental Impacts section below for the industry's strategy on climate change and other environmental impacts and Industry Data section for more detail on APD.

Subsidy and Infrastructure

Air travel pays for all its infrastructure - on the ground and in the air.
Aviation receives no subsidy from the taxpayer with the very small exception of regional assistance to some parts of the UK including the highlands and islands services in the north of Scotland.
Other public transport modes receive £ billions of subsidy each year. Rail is receiving £4.5 billion in 2005/6 and £15 billion is planned over the next 3 years. (Written Ministerial Statement 10th Feb 2005)
Buses receive about £1.2 billion of subsidy per year.

Environmental Impacts

The industry's sustainable development objective is to meet the environmental challenges whilst maintaining the undoubted economic and social benefits of air travel.

The following summarises the facts surrounding aviation's environmental impact, its past performance and the UK airlines' approach to these challenges. These issues are covered in more detail in the UK aviation industry's world-leading sustainability strategy, Sustainable Aviation. The full strategy document can be found at www.sustainableaviation.co.uk.

Climate Change

Aviation's contribution

Globally, air travel represents about 2% of man made carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions.( IPCC 1999)
UK domestic and international aviation accounted for 6% of the UK total in 2004
UK aviation accounts for just 0.1% of global CO2
Aviation's global contribution to climate change is estimated to grow to around 5-6% by 2050.

Role of Technology

Aircraft fuel efficiency has more than doubled in the past 40 years
Research target for new aircraft in 2020 is for a further 50% improvement on the 2000 level, including up to 10% from ATM system efficiencies
Technology alone is insufficient to limit emissions growth and cost-effective policy measures should be developed.

Global issue requires a global solution

Aviation should be included in a comprehensive global policy framework
Unilateral action would seriously damage UK competitiveness with negligible impact on emissions
Simple and equitable inclusion of aviation in the EU emissions trading scheme would be a positive step to a global solution
With emissions trading, airlines and their customers will have to cut emissions or pay to offset growth.

Non-CO₂ effects

Non-CO₂ atmospheric effects may also be important. Further research is needed. For further information see the Non-CO2 paper on www.sustainableaviation.co.uk

Local impacts

The local impacts of aviation are predominantly concerned with noise and local air quality.

Track record

The noise energy from aircraft has been reduced by over 50% over the last 30 years
The noise contour area around London's Heathrow airport has shrunk � reducing the population exposed to significant disturbance by 85% between 1974 and 2000

Future technology and operations

Research target for new aircraft in 2020 is for a further 50% reduction of noise energy compared to the level in 2000
Research target to improve NOx efficiency for new aircraft by 80% by 2020 compared to 2000
Airlines are committed to develop expand the use of best-practice operational techniques (such as Continuous Descent Approach) to minimize the noise impact around airports
Airlines are playing their full part in ensuring airports and their neighbourhoods meet air quality standards.