Could coronavirus expose the real cost of low-cost air travel?

As the coronavirus crisis deepens, many airlines are now flying empty planes, fearful of losing their slots in a “use it or lose it” industry. Coupled with other practices such as padding — exaggerating flight times to avoid complaints and relieve pressure on fuel efficiency — these and other issues highlight the extent to which an industry, air passenger transport, has become one of the most harmful to the planet.

First of all, this is a highly subsidized sector, historically protected by governments, which pays no taxes on its huge fuel consumption, and which, from the 1960s and 1970s saw airlines enjoy strong growth derived from the progressive adoption of low-cost models based on mass standardization and a no frills approach, even saving money on olives in business class. This model completely changed the industry and made it possible to increase both the number of flights and the number of passengers: in 2004 there were 23.8 million around the world, carrying almost two billion passengers, in 2020, before coronavirus, estimates put the number of flights at 40.3 million, and some 4.7 billion passengers. By 2017, low cost air travel already dominated 57.2% of the market in Asia, 37.9% in Europe, and 32.7% in the United States, with prospects for further growth.

The low-cost model is popular: it allows more planes to be sold, fuels the tourism industry, and generates the feeling that air travel is an option for everybody. But along the way, unacceptable practices have become normalized: travelers are crammed into tiny spaces with minimal leg room, while seats are barely more comfortable than a deckchair. As a result, most people say they now hate flying, but put up with substandard services and conditions because there’s no option: we shut up and put up.

What would happen if fuel subsidies were suddenly cut, making air travel much more expensive? In other words, what would happen if we paid the real price for flying, one that takes into account its environmental impact, and if we started to rethink the need to fly in sustainability terms?

Making the airline business sustainable will be expensive, because it will require re-establishing it on the basis of new clean technologies, possibly the combination of electricity and hydrogen, but above all, it will mean imposing a whole new set of standards that are already in place for other industries: it should only be allowed to grow to the point where that growth is sustainable, even if that means limiting it or carrying it out in other ways.

Could the lessons of the impending economic downturn caused by the coronavirus epidemic lead us there, or are we still not mature enough as a society to see the gravity of the situation?

(En español, aquí)