Aviación (Continuación)

ReflexionesNaturaleza, , ,

The past year has seen a growing storm of environmental campaigners threatening to bring the air transport industry down to earth. The past few weeks have seen two high-profile protests at Heathrow and parliament. Some groups are convinced that aviation is not doing enough in the effort against climate change. Planes seem to have overtaken automobiles for environmental criticism, although their impact is far less.

It is true that we in the industry need to do a lot more. But we have also been doing a bad job at communicating both our progress on the environment and the fundamental role that aviation now plays in the world economy.…  Seguir leyendo »

EspañaEconomía

Spanair, la segunda mayor aerolínea que opera en el mercado español, está en venta. Iberia y Gadair lideran dos propuestas alternativas de compra de esta aerolí- nea. La opción de Iberia suscita preocupación entre los agentes económicos y políticos de Catalunya, pues esta pasaría a controlar casi en exclusiva la flamante terminal sur de El Prat. En cambio, la opción de Gadair genera más simpatía, pues se trata de una empresa española con vínculos en los mercados aéreos de América Latina y Oriente Próximo.

Sin embargo, las preferencias que cada uno tenga respecto a las dos propuestas de compra de Spanair no deberían, en principio, afectar a la decisión que tome su actual propietario.…  Seguir leyendo »

EspañaEconomía,

AENA (Aeropuertos Españoles y Navegación Aérea), se creó como ente público en 1991, dependiente del Ministerio de Transportes. Integró varios departamentos de la Administración del Estado para gestionar y mejorar las infraestructuras del transporte aéreo en España, utilizando sus propios ingresos y abandonando el corsé que suponía tener que depender de los Presupuestos del Estado.

Diecisiete años después de su creación, es posible analizar de forma significativa las distintas etapas vividas por AENA a través de los diferentes gobiernos. Así, de una primera etapa positiva se pasó a otras desafortunadas que han llevado a la situación actual que considero necesita un cambio.…  Seguir leyendo »

InternacionalEconomía,

After an excellent year, Boeing is counting its blessings, which include its competitor. They also include an anticipated doubling of the commercial aviation market in the next 20 years, which will require 27,000 new planes, costing $2.6 trillion.

Americans ambivalent about globalization should note how Boeing, under chief executive James McNerney, is prospering. The Sept. 11 attacks devastated commercial airlines, causing Boeing -- which cut its jetliner production in half -- to rapidly shed more than 40,000 of its 93,000 workers who designed and built the planes. But the revival has added back some 13,000 jobs and raised Boeing's stock price from $25 to $88 a share.…  Seguir leyendo »

ReflexionesNaturalezaEuropaUnión Europea, , , ,

For once, I agree and sympathise with Tony Blair. Like the Prime Minister, I do a great deal of flying, for business and pleasure, and I haven’t the slightest intention of altering my travel plans in any way. Mr Blair’s one mistake in flying to Florida for a family holiday was to offer a half-baked apology. He would have much done more good, for the global environment and for the quality of public debate in Britain, by sticking to his original position, pithily summarised by The Guardian’s front-page headline on Tuesday: “Carry on flying, says Blair — science will save the planet”.…  Seguir leyendo »

EuropaUnión Europea, , , ,

George Monbiot asserts that the EU emissions trading scheme is a red herring (Ministers know emissions trading is a red herring and won't work, December 19). The truth is the argument that he puts - that Britain should, or could, tackle aviation emissions on its own - is the diversion.There is no question that combating climate change is the most serious challenge we as a society face, and that aviation has a key role to play. Monbiot's position on aviation, as he explained two months ago (Drastic action on climate change is needed now - and here's the plan, October 31), is to cut the UK's aviation capacity by 90%.…  Seguir leyendo »

EuropaUnión Europea, , , ,

I suppose I should be flattered. In a speech to fellow airline bosses a few days ago, Martin Broughton, the chief executive of British Airways, announced that the primary challenge for the industry is to "isolate the George Monbiots of this world". That shouldn't be difficult. For a terrifying spectre, I'm feeling pretty lonely. Almost everyone in politics appears to want to forget about aviation's impact on the environment.On Wednesday the secretary of state for communities launched a bold plan to make new homes more energy efficient. She claims it will save 7m tonnes of carbon. On Thursday Douglas Alexander, the transport secretary, announced that he would allow airports to keep growing: by 2030 the number of passengers will increase from 228 million to 465 million.…  Seguir leyendo »

EspañaEconomía,

En la Terminal 1 de Barajas, lejos de las rutilantes y carísimas vigas de bambú curvado con que Richard Rogers y Antonio Lamela concibieron la catedralicia bóveda de la T-4, la pequeña persiana bajada de Air Madrid representa la delicada frontera que separa en la economía posindustrial la cumbre de los éxitos rápidos y el abismo de los fracasos vertiginosos, esa sutil membrana que divide el cielo hacia el que vuelan algunos proyectos cargados de expectativas jubilosas y el suelo en el que se estrellan, derretidas como las alas de Ícaro, ciertas aventuras enredadas en el hilo de sus propias limitaciones.…  Seguir leyendo »

EuropaUnión EuropeaDefensa y Seguridad, ,

Hasta el momento, en el mejor de los casos, los pasajeros hacen en cada caso un acto de resignación, que a pesar de su carácter laico se asemeja mucho a la más genuina resignación cristiana: Dios, en su infinita sabiduría, sabe más que nosotros, y si nos hace pasar por este trance seguro que tiene sus motivos. No somos nosotros, pobres criaturas, quienes debamos poner en cuestión su Providencia. Pero aquí el papel de Dios, como muy acertadamente escribía en estas páginas uno de sus mejores columnistas, lo asume la Unión Europea, aunque nadie sepa muy bien a qué o a quiénes nos referimos al invocar a esta nueva divinidad que ordena nuestras vidas.…  Seguir leyendo »

EuropaUnión Europea, , , ,

It is disappointing that the debate on aviation's role in climate change is guided more by emotion than facts. George Monbiot's call for a freeze on all new airport construction, and the introduction of a national quota for landing slots, is a case in point (Drastic action on climate change is needed now - and here's the plan, October 31).He lays much of the blame for climate change at aviation's door, but he ignores some basic truths. UN scientists from the International Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) estimate aviation's contribution to global carbon emissions to be just 2%. To put things in perspective, road traffic contributes 18% globally, while the fossil fuels used to generate heat and power contribute 35%.…  Seguir leyendo »

EuropaUnión Europea, , , ,

By George Monbiot (THE GUARDIAN, 31/10/06):

It is a testament to the power of money that Nicholas Stern's report should have swung the argument for drastic action, even before anyone has finished reading it. He appears to have demonstrated what many of us suspected: that it would cost much less to prevent runaway climate change than to seek to live with it. Useful as this finding is, I hope it doesn't mean that the debate will now concentrate on money. The principal costs of climate change will be measured in lives, not pounds. As Stern reminded us yesterday, there would be a moral imperative to seek to prevent mass death even if the economic case did not stack up.…  Seguir leyendo »

MundoAmérica, , ,

By Jon A. Krosnick, a professor of communication, political science and psychology at Stanford (THE NEW YORK TIMES, 30/08/06):

THE crash of a Comair jet in Kentucky on Sunday ended the longest safety streak in aviation history: it’s been almost five years since a passenger died in a commercial airline jet accident in the United States.

Crashes are actually very crude gauges of the safety of air travel because they remain so rare. We must pay attention instead to the little events that happen every day in the skies and on the ground that very, very slightly increase the risk of another disaster.…  Seguir leyendo »

EspañaModelo de EstadoModelo Territorial, ,

Por Germà Bel, catedrático de Economía de la UB y profesor visitante de la de Harvard (EL PERIÓDICO, 18/03/06):

El traspaso de la gestión comercial y financiera del aeropuerto de Barcelona es el escollo final más importante en la reforma del Estatut. Seguro que el proyecto aprobado el pasado septiembre en el Parlament estaba por encima de lo políticamente viable. Pero es muy probable que el recorte efectuado en las Cortes acabe dejando el nuevo Estatut bastante por debajo de lo que conviene a Catalunya y resulta viable para España.
Los avatares de El Prat constituyen el mejor ejemplo de esta situación.…  Seguir leyendo »

ReflexionesNaturaleza, , , ,

By Anatole Kaletsky (THE TIMES, 09/03/06):

As I write this, I am flying back from a two-day trip to New York, as a result of which I am responsible for creating 1.2 tonnes of carbon dioxide. Next week I will be making two return flights to Europe, adding another 0.2 tonnes, and the week after that, I will be taking my entire family on a holiday to the Caribbean, creating roughly six tonnes of CO2.

Am I a carbon criminal for creating 7.4 tonnes of pollution, thereby bringing forward the day of judgment when we will all get our just deserts by roasting in a technological, post-enlightenment version of Dante’s Inferno?…  Seguir leyendo »

ReflexionesNaturaleza, , ,

By Keith Jowett and Roger Wiltshire, chief executive of the Airport Operators Association and secretary general of the British Air Transport Association respectively. Response to For the sake of the world's poor... (THE GUARDIAN, 03/03/06):
George Monbiot's diatribe against aviation was full of the sort of emotive language one might see on an extreme eco-warrior website, with references to Orwellian nightmares and "unparalleled disaster" (For the sake of the world's poor, we must keep the wealthy at home, February 28).It is astonishing that one of the few industries where Britain is still a world leader, and which is essential to the prosperity of this nation, can be criticised in such a cavalier manner.…  Seguir leyendo »

ReflexionesNaturaleza, , ,

By George Monbiot (THE GUARDIAN, 28/02/06):

At last the battlelines have been drawn, and the first major fight over climate change is about to begin. All over the country, a coalition of homeowners and anarchists, of Nimbys and internationalists, is mustering to fight the greatest future cause of global warming: the growth of aviation.

Not all these people care about the biosphere. Some are concerned merely that their homes are due to be bulldozed, or that, living under the new flight paths, they will never get a good night's sleep again. But anyone who has joined a broad-based coalition understands the power of this compound of idealism and dogged self-interest.…  Seguir leyendo »

EspañaEconomía,

Por Francisco Mochón Morcillo, catedrático de Análisis Económico de la UNED (EL PAIS, 18/11/04):

¿Qué es un hub? Un hub es un centro de distribución para los enlaces entre distintas zonas del mundo, esto es, un hub es un aeropuerto en el que se apoyan otros muchos para enlazar vuelos en conexión de otros aeropuertos radiales. Los hubs absorben el tráfico de otros aeropuertos sirviendo como centro de conexiones a terceros destinos, siendo, por lo tanto, un instrumento para ofertar servicios globales. La importancia de los hubs radica en que las grandes compañías y sus aliadas sólo podrán ofrecer sus servicios (especialmente los de carácter global) con comodidad, rapidez y seguridad si tienen un punto (esto es, un aeropuerto) en el que converjan todos los esfuerzos para atender al cliente con las máximas garantías de eficiencia y donde se generen economías de escala; ese punto es lo que constituye un hub.…  Seguir leyendo »