Three budget carriers ask EC to 'stick to its contrails guns'

The airlines have told the Commission it must hold firm and ignore attempts being made by other industry actors to restrict the scope of the research to Intra-European flights only - arguing if pushed through, it would be a missed opportunity to enhance understanding about non-CO2 effects in global regions.

In a joint statement, the three European airlines said:

“EasyJet, Ryanair and Wizz Air submitted a joint letter to the EU commission calling on them to reject International Air Transport Association (IATA) attempts to restrict monitoring of non-CO2 effects to intra-European flights.

"Given long-haul extra-EEA flights account for around 70 per cent of Europe’s aviation emissions, limiting the geographical scope of this research would not only undermine the EU’s proposed Monitoring, Reporting, and Verification (MRV) programme, but would be a huge missed opportunity to enhance understanding about non-CO2 effects in regions such as the North-Atlantic, where a high concentration of contrails are formed by long-haul flights.

"We believe increased funding, data gathering and research are necessary to build increased understanding of non-Co2 effects and how to best mitigate any negative impact they might have.”