AIRLINES DCC
BA to axe free short- haul food and drink
BRITISH AIRWAYS’ SHORT-HAUL TRAVELLERS will soon have to pay for in-flight food and drink, after the airline announced it will scrap its complimentary catering options. The airline will remove the free service for its economy passengers on the majority of its short-haul routes from January 11. Business class passengers will continue to receive the
complimentary service, with revamped options being introduced from spring next year. The new food will be provided by Marks and Spencer, and include sandwiches priced at £3-£4.75, soft drinks from £1.50 and alcoholic drinks from £4.
ENVIRONMENT
Landmark deal agreed to curb CO2 emissions
A DEAL TO CURB GLOBAL AVIATION GREENHOUSE GAS EMISSIONS has been finalised. The agreement, made at the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) in Montreal, will apply to passenger and cargo flights that generate more than 10,000 tonnes of CO2 gasses annually.
The deal, which will come
into effect from 2020 with 65 countries signing up, will mean any increase in airline emissions will have to be offset by activities such as tree planting. Global aviation emissions in 2020 will be used as a benchmark, with around 80 per cent of
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emissions above 2020 levels offset until 2035.
The new system will be voluntary until 2027, but dozens of countries, including the world’s two largest emitters, the US and China, have promised to join at its outset. ICAO previously promised carbon neutral aviation growth in the 2020s, and planned to align the ambitions of airlines with the Paris Agreement, limiting warming to two degrees centigrade, or preferably 1.5 degrees. However, in Montreal those plans were either watered down or dropped to reach the current compromise.
Lufthansa’s DCC has minimal effect on corporate bookings
LUFTHANSA INSISTS IT HAS SEEN “VERY LITTLE” NEGATIVE EFFECTS on corporate bookings since the introduction of its controversial Ð16 GDS fee. The German airline said there had been a “small to no impact” on corporate business with the introduction of the Distribution Cost Charge (DCC). However, it concedes that bookings have been hit on the ‘low-revenue’ European market where an extra Ð16 can add a significant amount to the price of a flight. The DCC charge was brought in last year and is applicable to all bookings on Lufthansa, Austrian Airlines, Brussels Airlines and Swiss not made through one of the company’s own channels, such as
Lufthansa.com. “Bookings have not been hit on the corporate side but the area where we really saw an effect was on the low-revenue
European routes, where the price sensitivity is very high and Ð16 is a very big difference,” said Lufthansa’s vice-president sales Europe, Heike Birlenbach.
“This is different in the corporate arena and long-haul, and therefore the effects are as we expected them to be. We don’t have any other negative figures about DCC.”
HS2
HS2 rail link will be built, insists government
THE GOVERNMENT HAS CONFIRMED it is still committed to building a high-speed rail link between London and the north of England. Transport Secretary Chris Grayling said the country needs HS2 “more than ever” and construction will start early next year despite protests from MPs and the public. He has also committed £70 million to support local communities affected by the link. Grayling told an HS2 conference: “We’re not backing away
from HS2. The case is as strong as ever. We need this railway. And if we’re going to build it, let’s make it state-of-the-art, fit for the decades of growth ahead; so that in 2033, we no longer have a rail network with a Victorian heart but a network with an Elizabethan heart, able to deliver everything we expect of a 21st-century transport system.”
BBT November/December 2016 15
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