Can British Airways Boost It’s “Green Credentials”?

Given that the world’s airline companies are viewed as the main contributors of man-made carbon dioxide even though they just contribute about 3-percent overall, will British Airways’ plan to make kerosene from domestic wastes eventually boost the airline company’s “green credentials”?  

By: Ringo Bones

Even though they only contribute around 3-percent of the overall man-made carbon dioxide emissions into the Earth’s atmosphere, the world’s airline companies has since been under somewhat unfair scrutiny when it comes to those man-made activities that exacerbates the ongoing climate change that could eventually result in sea-level rise and an increase in the number of droughts and rainfall pattern disruption. But will the British Airways’ plans to make aviation grade kerosene from domestic wastes eventually lower their overall carbon dioxide emissions?

At present, conservative funded think-tanks are still publishing data that the manufacture of hydrocarbon-based fuels from biomass and related material like domestic and agricultural wastes offer no less overall carbon dioxide emission reduction as opposed to refining these fuels directly from crude oil. The very fact that most of the world’s crude oil supply comes from less-than-friendly nation-states only bolster every tenured scientists’ attempts at making hydrocarbon based fuels from “alternative” and “renewable” sources.  

Willie Walsh, Chief Executive of IAG – International Airline Group, the parent company of British Airways – says there are already plans to create a facility to make aviation grade kerosene for use in their jet airliners from domestic wastes. Even though the spot price of crude oil has now dropped from 110 US dollars per barrel at the start of 2014 to around 85 US dollars per barrel at present, the British Airways kerosene manufacturing plant that will open around 2017 will still be cost competitive with crude oil sourced aviation grade kerosene even if the spot price of crude oil falls to around 50 US dollars per barrel. 

Mainland China: The Private Jets Industry’s Undiscovered Country?

Despite the pessimistic future outlook by leading economic pundits, is this country with the fastest growing billionaires still the private jets / executive jets industry’s “undiscovered country?

By: Ringo Bones 

Even though leading economic pundits still paint a pessimistic outlook when it comes to The People’s Republic of China’s future annual economic growth rate by saying it can no longer do a repeat of the economic prosperity that it experienced during the first decade of the 21^st Century, the country is still well known for having the fastest growing number of billionaires – which Ali Baba’s Jack Ma is a good example. But believe it or not, Mainland China still doesn’t have a private jets / executive jets industry providing its still growing population of billionaires, thus – inexplicably – making the country an “undiscovered country” when it comes to private jets.

In a BBC interview back in September 14, 2014 of Robert Molsbergen, the Chief Operating Officer of the Warren Buffett owned NetJets already has plans to establish a private jets / executive jets business in Mainland China given that nobody else has done it yet. NetJets had recently negotiated with local Mainland Chinese business partners which only suggest the company’s seriousness to establish a private jets / executive jets industry / service to the still untapped region. Even though there are still fears that foreign companies are still not treated evenhandedly by the monolithic Beijing communist party, the burgeoning Mainland China’s richest 1 percent is just too tempting to ignore. 

Mainland Chinese billionaires or not, air travel is projected to increase by 5.7 percent throughout Asia by 2017 according to an assessment made by the International Air Transport Association – IATA – back in 2013, so even if the private jets / executive jets demand plateaus, Warren Buffett’s NetJets could diversify into a bespoke high-end airline that caters to Asia’s millionaires by providing a 1950s style service to those who can afford it. The whole of Asia could be the global aviation industry’s fastest growing sector.