Burn, baby, burn: Silverjet makes carbon offsets mandatory
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Silverjet, the latest entrant in the all-business class segment of travel between New York and London, has done something no other airline has ever dared: imposed mandatory fees to cover the environmental effects of the trip.
Silverjet, which is working with the Edinburgh Centre for Carbon Management, said the exact cost of the carbon charge had yet to be calculated, but was likely to be between £10 and £20 for each passenger.
Expedia and Travelocity recently partnered with third-party organizations like TerraPass to give customers the option of buying so-called carbon offsets — monies that go toward planting trees and other carbon dioxide-reducing environmental projects. (If you want to go beyond offsetting your flights, you could also opt for the 8-week “carbon diet.”)
But Silverjet, which just began taking bookings for its service between Newark and London-Luton (flights start on January 25, 2007), is the first airline to require such a charge.
The move isn’t purely charitable. CEO Lawrence Hunt puts it succinctly: “If the airline industry does not do something about [emissions] then it will get regulated to hell by the European and UK governments.”
This might be the start of a trend among European airlines, but don’t expect Asian or American airlines to follow suit anytime soon.
Related:
- Reduced-guilt flying now readily available for online purchase
- Do we really need ANOTHER all-business class airline to London?
- Silverjet IPO enables third London-New York all-business-class airline
- Are open skies dirty skies?
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December 1st, 2006 at 8:18 am |
What a bunch of crap-ola.
How about this: regulate the crap out of corporate jets and private jets (think Bono and the rest of the limo libs here) for pollution purposes and leave mass transportation out of it.
They gonna surcharge buses too?
-TF
April 30th, 2007 at 11:17 pm |
[…] - Burn, baby, burn: Silverjet makes carbon offsets mandatory - Reduced-guilt flying now readily available for online purchase - Are open skies dirty skies? […]
June 9th, 2008 at 9:18 pm |
[…] First time here? Check out the site’s “greatest hits” or read a random post from the archives. Feel free to ask a question, and consider subscribing to the latest posts via RSS or e-mail. Thanks for visiting!Reader James dials the U:TB Batphone and tips us off to this fictitious airline’s oddly plausible website: Derrie-Air (har har har), “the world’s only carbon-neutral luxury airline, where you don’t have to choose between living the high life and saving the planet.” Heh. Sounds oddly familiar. […]