EasyJet Plc, Europe’s second-largest low-cost carrier, has recently unveiled its vision of a short haul aircraft that it expects will produce 50 percent less carbon dioxide than its presents aircrafts and can be delivered by 2015. EasyJet has urged plane manufacturers to produce greener planes after unveiling the prototype for an aircraft that could potentially reduce carbon dioxide emissions by half. The new model would use open rotor engines invented in response to the oil crisis of the 1970s. However, the targeted reductions of carbon dioxide emissions have met with skepticism by aviation experts and conservationists.
Manufacturers had discarded the design in the 1980s due to the fact that the oil price fell and fuel efficiency became less important. The company has said that the proposed model of engines would be much more efficient than existing ones, but also noisier as they would have no outer shell around the rotating blades. Rolls Royce is among many other aircraft manufacturers already working on open rotor engines, which are double the diameter of existing engines and capable of producing the same amount of thrust with half the fuel. In addition, the eco-jet would also be designed to fly more slowly to save fuel, adding five to ten minutes to most journeys within Europe.
On the other hand, Robert Culleymore, an analyst at Aviation Economics, has opined that easyJet’s projections were over-optimistic. He further argued, ‘to get to a 50 percent reduction would require a fairly revolutionary breakthrough. Both Airbus and Boeing are already in the process of designing replacements for the type of plane that easyJet flies, but the 50 percent target would also require huge strides forward from engine manufacturers.’ Experts believe that the scheduled launch of new Boeing 787 next month is expected to mark as a major breakthrough in this direction as it is expected to bring down the carbon dioxide emissions by 20 percent. Analysts of aviation industry still finding it tough to digest that ‘eco-jet’ could reduce emissions by 50 percent. Further they conceded that environmental concerns are one most important aspect for the aviation companies from public relation perspective.
In the meantime, the European Union has announced plans for a €1.6 billion research program intended to lessen carbon emissions from aircraft by 50 percent by 2020. Interestingly, the date of announcement of the research program coincided with the announcement of ‘eco-jet’ plans. The aviation firm in its statement has said that open rotor engines would reduce emissions by 25 per cent, with lighter materials and air traffic control improvements would contribute further cutback of 15 and 10 per cent correspondingly. However, other rival carriers have rejected the idea of ‘eco-Jet’. EasyJet contends that the lightning rod for environmental group criticism of airlines, the low-budget carriers, has much newer and greener aircraft than its traditional rivals such as British Airways.
In the meanwhile, Airbus has promised to increase its research budget by 25 percent from next year and said that by 2020, all of its new aircraft would produce 50 per cent less CO2.
