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The boss of British Airways has urged govts to back a UN plan to cut greenhouse gases produced by the aviation industry and revealed the company hopes to reduce its own carbon dioxide emissions by 8.5%. Willie Walsh has called on govts and carriers to support a proposal by the UN’s ICAO for a global deal to reduce carbon dioxide emissions by the industry. At the same time, IAG has unveiled a target to cut its CO2 emissions to 87.3 grams per passenger kilometre by 2020 from 95.4 last year. Aviation ministers are due to meet in Montreal in October for ICAO’s assembly and Walsh wants them to agree a mandatory international plan on CO2. The airline industry has pledged to cut carbon emissions by 50% by 2050 but this target can only be met if govts back ICAO’s plan, according to Walsh. <br/>

Malaysia Airlines has delayed plans to sell some of its Airbus A380s and will now keep all 6 of them at least until 2018 after retiring its fleet of Boeing 777s. The carrier has tried unsuccessfully to sell the planes for the last year to cut costs as part of a restructuring plan which also saw it withdraw from several long-haul European routes. After accelerating the retirement of its much older Boeing 777-200 fleet, the airline has decided to keep the A380s in service until it gets the first of its new Airbus A350s, Christoph Mueller said ahead of the Singapore Airshow. "We need them for the long haul market," said Mueller of the A380s, which the airline flies only to London. MAS is also evaluating if it needs 2 more A350s to add to the 4 that it will get from leasing companies, Mueller said. <br/>