Business aviation bodies join call for EU investment in green initiatives

As Europe’s passenger air transport market emerges from lockdown, representatives from business and commercial aviation associations have issued an urgent call to the continent’s policy makers to “prioritise specific decarbonisation initiatives” in their allocation of future coronavirus recovery funding. In an open letter published Wednesday, the European Business Aviation Association (EBAA), General Aviation Manufacturers Association (GAMA) and 11 other industry trade bodies point to an aviation industry reeling from the “sudden collapse of the air transport system” since coronavirus hit the region in March, leaving the sector amongst the “most-heavily impacted” by the pandemic. The industry’s challenges are “compounded”, the signatories say, by the need to meet ambitious climate-change goals going forward. “Ensuring an accelerated deployment of existing decarbonisation solutions and adequate investments to bring new technologies forward will be key – investments which should be at the heart of the EU’s Covid-19 recovery strategy,” says the letter “In the meantime, existing financial instruments, such as loans, could also be made available to provide urgent relief,” it adds. Europe’s aviation sector is “committed” to contributing to the recovery of the region’s economies, the associations continue, in line with the Commission’s Green Deal objectives – which aim to make the region zero-carbon by 2050.<br/>