Putting the record straight

Letter to the Editor of the Independent on Sunday
18 August 2008  

Dear Sir,

It is ironic that Michael O’Leary, heading as he does one of the world’s most successful airlines, seems so confused about what the airline industry carries (Michael O’Leary: Cheap & Cheerful, Sunday 17 August).  He asks “will you stop buying kiwi fruit in Sainsbury’s because they’ve been flown half-way round the world?” 

Only an idiot would fly in kiwi fruit because the cost of doing so would be prohibitive.  Air freight is many times more expensive than sea transport per tonne carried.  This is good because air transport also produces over a hundred times more CO2 per tonne kilometre than shipping – so flying the kiwi fruit would be immensely more environmentally damaging.

O’Leary goes on to (wrongly) claim that marine transport “accounts for twice the emissions of the airline industry”.  It really makes no sense to compare the two industries – they perform very different roles and are hugely different in size.  Marine transport is vastly bigger than the airline industry – if O’Leary’s figures about CO2 were correct it would be about 200 times bigger in terms of tonnes carried.  All this silly comparison shows is how remarkably CO2 efficient marine transport is.

Yours sincerely,

Jeremy Harrison
Chamber of Shipping, London