Climate experts call for slower flights – up to an hour longer

Let's hope this futile scheme never succeeds.

Researchers in Cambridge University announced An unrealistic plan to cut aviation's carbon emissions to zero by 2050 – by requiring longer flight times.

Flying doesn't seem like enough of a punishment these days – witness the recent American Airlines flight that was rerouted to its original Dulles airport after 5 hours, or the plane that flew directly into a tropical storm just days ago – now we have all that and more to look forward to, but at a slower pace.

“The ‘bold measure’ would slow airspeeds by a whopping 15% – adding about 50 minutes of travel time to each single flight,” The Independent It has been reported.

The proposal would cut fuel burning by 5 to 7 percent, and reduce the industry's 4 percent contribution to overall climate change, according to research being submitted to the United Nations.

By 2050, that could halve fuel cuts, according to projections.

Experts have suggested that long flights could be offset by making airports more efficient and reducing delays – an idea sure to upset travellers around the world.

Earlier this year, another group of experts described rampant flight disruptions as the “new normal” — thanks to Covid-induced changes and rising passenger numbers.

After a hellish year for Boeing, the planemaker, with parts repeatedly exploding and breaking apart mid-flight, the research team suggests that better-built planes could help airline customers, too.

To achieve these goals, Professor Rob Miller of the Whittle Laboratory at the University of Cambridge said aviation as a whole needed to “change the whole systems process”.

“Airlines can’t do it alone, and manufacturers can’t do it alone, and airports can’t do it either,” he said. The Times of London.

But such an initiative might be a bit overdone at the moment, he noted.

“It's not that nobody wants to, but the complexity of the system makes it very difficult to do.”

“The aviation sector is at a pivotal moment, just like the automotive industry in the late 2000s,” he added.

Elon Musk's Tesla delivered its first electric cars to consumers at the end of that decade.

According to the Energy Information Administration, more than 16% of U.S. vehicles will be either electric or hybrid by the end of 2023.