Sustainability should not become a “competitive issue” or a case of “my plane is greener than your plane”, according to the leader of the World Travel and Tourism Council.
Government support for sustainable development in aviation, a “light-touch” system of testing and no return to a red list for travel were among the other calls in a WTM session focusing on the recovery of the sector.
Responding to a radio interview by Ryanair group chief executive Michael O’Leary on Monday morning in which he was asked about climate change, Julia Simpson, chief executive of the WTTC, said the aviation sector should not make sustainability a “competitive issue”.
She said: “We need green investments. Travel and tourism includes different industries, some of which have not got easy pathways to net zero, in aviation and cruise lines.
“O’Leary is fantastic but we have got to stop making it: ‘my plane is greener than your plane’. That doesn’t help the industry.
“We all know the truth when we work in the industry. An A320 at full capacity – whether it’s BA or Ryanair – the fuel burn is the same.”
Simpson, who has previously served on the boards for British Airways and Iberia and was chief of staff at International Airlines Group, added that the aviation sector had been investing significantly in new, more efficient technology but that further assistance was required.
She said: “Governments have given a lot of support to electric cars and vehicles, but no support to aviation, so if we are taking our investors’ money, we do need a little bit of help.
“In aviation, we’re not going to get there as quickly as other people.”
She also branded the travel red list as “shameful”.
“I really hope that governments never go back to having red lists where you put whole countries on the naughty list. That’s been massively damaging to the economy,” she said.
“We will still need a system of light-touch testing that does not cost $200 per family member. If you want to do PCR testing for genome sequencing, then the government should pay for it.”