The flying Siamese twins – Joop

The sector also knows that flying is a major social and climate problem.

On Wednesday, April 3, 2024, Members of Parliament will be allowed to appear again during an exclusive meeting with the aviation lobby. Of course behind tightly closed doors. The airline lobbyists even guarantee the absence of listening ears, such as those of the press. Ties Joosten from Follow the Money explains what is completely wrong with that meeting for politicians. Politicians who go to company events, but hardly ever appear at residents’ evenings. You can read his story here.

I’m concerned about something else. I have attended many small meetings like this. This in the position of chairman of the BTV Rotterdam Airport and Schipholwatch. What I see there is that the airline lobby keeps doing the same trick. The problems are almost always separated. Because the sector also knows that flying is a major social and climate problem. But in order to reduce the problem from the point of view of economic and short-term gain, people fanatically take things apart. This is to prevent the flying problem from being seen to its full extent.

For example, people like to talk about flight noise and that the aircraft are becoming less noisy, while in practice this is inaudible. It goes like this: the aviation lobby is proud that the planes are becoming 50% quieter. EASA thinks that is “fake news” and not fair! 50% less noise does not mean that an aircraft makes 48 dBA of noise, but 93 dBA if one takes 96 dBA as a starting point. So you really don’t hear that difference. But people do want to fly more because they make ‘less noise’. This means, as one board member at Rotterdam airport put it: “You will not get more nuisance, but more often”. Moreover, official practical measurements show that these so-called quieter aircraft make barely 1 dBA less noise.

At a completely different time, so never at the same time, people talk about “cleaner aircraft”. The disclaimer is never included. That less polluting is factually untrue. That’s because: They say the planes emit 15% less “per seat”. But because these newer planes are about 25% larger, they are actually more polluting. That also makes sense, because larger aircraft are heavier and therefore use considerably more energy to lift the aircraft and push it forward. Unfortunately, the lobbyists do not tell any of this, in the hope that political decision-makers and journalists do not ask further questions or think things through. People use less pollution as an argument for flying more!

Have you figured out the trick yet? By separating the environmental problems, there are two arguments for continued growth. At one time you use the ‘less noisy’ argument and at another time the ‘less polluting’ argument. Success assured, you would think.

But… Flying is noise and air pollution at the same time! Always! Without noise, an airplane cannot move forward and neither does it without air pollution. And no, electric flying is not possible on a large scale and hydrogen has not yet gone beyond drawing board idealism.

Flying is therefore a Siamese twin of noise and air pollution. Separating such twins almost always leads to death or severe mutilation. So that is what is happening now and will happen next Wednesday during a secret meeting between MPs and airline lobbyists. Dead or severely mutilated arguments are presented there. This with only one purpose: money!

In my speeches in The Hague, Rotterdam and Eindhoven in recent weeks, I emphasized the existence of those flying Siamese twins. That was desperately needed, because the public and journalists had not yet made this comparison. I told the audience: It is really important that we proceed as follows. If the aviation lobby starts talking about noise, then you start talking about air pollution. If the aviation lobby starts talking about cleaner flying, you start talking about noise.

I always wonder if at the end of such a lobby day you can look in the mirror and say to yourself that you have done a really good job for the future of the planet, but even more so for that of your own children and grandchildren.