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KUALA LUMPUR, May 12 (Bernama) — The European Union’s (EU) carbon emission trading scheme (EU ETS), which is being extended to the aviation industry and comes into force in 2012 is baseless, says Malaysia Airlines (MAS) Chief Executive Officer, Tengku Datuk Azmil Zahruddin.
“Once the EU ETS comes into force and when we fly to London, we have to pay the EU a carbon tax, effectively all the way from Kuala Lumpur. How can the EU make us pay for flying over Kuala Lumpur and South East Asia as well. There is no basis for this,” he said.
Such moves are clearly how politicians demonise the aviation industry, said Azmil, who is also the Managing Director of the airline.
“We are not happy about it,” he said, after delivering a speech on The Journey of Success from Chief Financial Officer (CFO) to CEO at the CFO Symposium 2010 on, “Unlocking The Corporate Value”.
He said the aviation industry is often potrayed as great polluters but in actual fact, the global airline industry only contributes 2-3 per cent of carbon dioxide emissions.
“Hence, the extent to which airlines are being penalised, is I think extremely disproportionate,” he explained.
Besides a passenger voluntary carbon offset programme, MAS is also actively promoting activities on the ground and in the air, to mitigate carbon dioxide emission.
Its fuel efficiency programme, regular maintenance, recycling activities, water and energy conservation initiatives, fleet renewal plan and route planning are among the more prominent activities.
Earlier, during a question and answer session, Azmil said MAS had learnt a lot from the low cost carriers, especially, AirAsia.
“Previously, our fleet turnaround time was 45 minutes while airlines like AirAsia, do it in 25 minutes. We learnt from them and now, our turnaround time is 30 minutes,” he added.
Such initiatives, he said had enabled MAS to increase frequency, especially in the domestic market by 13 per cent without adding new airplanes or additional cost.
“Our domestic revenue also increased by 16 per cent in the fourth quarter of 2009,” he highlighted.
On another development, Azmil said MAS has increased its frequency to several destinations, such as Brisbane, Perth, Mali, Colombo, Johannesburg and Paris.
It has also commenced flights to new destinations, namely to Dammam, Saudi Arabia and is looking into other new sectors as well.
— BERNAMA