Virgin's Richard Branson’s says airlines need ‘go greener to ease flying guilt’

A surge in activism on carbon emissions is an issue for airlines, Richard Branson warns.

“There’s no question that air travel has to exist or we go back to the dark ages,” says Sir Richard Branson Picture: iStock

Airlines need to work harder at reducing their carbon footprint so environmentally conscious travellers do not have to feel guilty about flying.

Speaking at Brisbane Airport on Thursday to promote Virgin Australia’s new route to Tokyo, Sir Richard Branson said improving sustainability was the No 1 priority for any airline but more needed to be done.

“The most environmental environmentalists fly … to get to conferences to talk about sorting out the problems of the world, and they have to because there’s no question that air travel has to exist or we go back to the dark ages,” said Sir Richard.

“But it’s up to us companies to get our footprint down and down and down, so people don’t feel guilty.”

Richard Branson takes a ride on a giant sushi train, as Virgin Australia promoted their new Brisbane-Tokyo route, at Brisbane Airport. Photographer: Liam Kidston.

Among the initiatives being adopted by Virgin Atlantic was the development of an alternative fuel source, using processed waste from steel and aluminium plants.

In the case of his space travel venture Virgin Galactic, Sir Richard said passengers would be encouraged to ensure each suborbital trip was carbon-neutral.

“It’s important we all have an element of guilt and try to balance that,” Sir Richard said.

“Anyone who goes into space with Virgin Galactic will be able to plant on Ted Turner’s estate next to the space port enough trees to cover their carbon footprint.”

He revealed his plan for saving the environment was for all companies worldwide to invest a percentage of their profits in clean energy, based on the size of their carbon footprint.

“I think unlike a carbon tax, that would create a revolution in clean energy,” Sir Richard said.

“You’d get trillions of dollars going into clean energy and the companies wouldn’t suffer because that’s actually investment — they’d get money back, and the public would benefit because the price of fuel would drop very quickly because of the amount of clean energy being produced.”

With airlines under unprecedented scrutiny as a result of the “flight shaming” movement in Europe, Virgin Australia CEO Paul Scurrah said the whole industry needed to get better at balancing the argument about their carbon emissions against the economic contribution they made to countries.

“There is no doubt that climate change is real but we have to have a balanced argument about how we draw the road map from where we are today to where we need to be as an airline industry,” Mr Scurrah said.