Doha, the executive committee of the Arab Air Carriers Organisation held its meeting in Doha, with the spotlight turning on the Emission Trading Scheme (ETS) implemented by the European Union on airlines entering EU airspace.

Members of the regional aviation body, representing the interests of commercial carriers in Arab countries, discussed the EU’s insistence in applying the ETS programme despite objections voiced by a number of governments wordlwide

The executive committee called on the EU to response "to voices around the world", calling on it to work with the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) on a global, rather than Europe-wide, solution on how to deal with the environmental footprint of civil aviation.

The Doha meeting declared the following:

  • A unilateral application of the EU ETS is violating the essence of the Chicago convention, which stipulates that the Air Transport relations between states need to be regulated by mutual consent and agreement.
  • The resolutions of the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) have explicitly called upon states that wish to introduce initiatives in the environmental footprint of aviation, to do that in agreement with the other states whose institutions might be impacted by such initiatives.
  • The fact that the ETS holds airlines of the world responsible for their emissions before the European authorities, contradicts with the principles of sovereignty of states over their national aerospace, and that national institutions of states are responsible before its own authorities and not the authorities of other countries.
  • The EU’s attempts to impose its own policies on other states will only lead to conflicts and trade wars which will not help the environment, the customer nor will it help the airlines. On the contrary, these attempts will negatively impact those stakeholders thus negatively impacting as well the global economic activity.
  • The environmental cause is a global one and any solution thereof should also be global arrived at under the auspices of the concerned United nations agency: ICAO.
  • The Arab Air Carriers Organisation is fully aware of the necessity to mitigate the environmental footprint of aviation and it supports taking global measures agreed upon within ICAO.
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Pictured during the Arab Air Carriers Organisation Meeting in Doha, are from left: Secretary General of AACO Abdul Wahab Teffaha; Chairman / Director General Middle East Airlines Mohamad A. El-Hout; President and CEO Air Algerie Mohamed Salah Boultif; Director General Saudi Arabian Airlines Khalid Almolhem; Vice Chairman Director General and CEO Syrian Arab Airlines & Chairperson of the Executive Committee Ghaida Abdullatif; Qatar Airways Chief Executive Officer Akbar Al Baker; President & Chief Executive Officer Etihad Airways James Hogan; Chief Executive Officer Gulf Air Samer Majali; and Chairman and CEO Egypt Air Capt. Hossam Kamal Abuelkheir.

Qatar Airways Chief Executive Officer Akbar Al Baker, hosting the members at the meeting, commented:

“There has to be a systematic approach to the implementation of any such scheme and, like many airlines around the world, we feel the European Union needed to take a step-by-step consultative approach before imposing programmes and penalising an aviation industry that plays a crucial role in driving economies.”

Source: Qatar Airways