JetBlue Airways is walking away from the purchase of carbon offsets for its domestic flights in 2023, instead opting to step up its investment in and use of SAF. The carrier disclosed the shift Tuesday as part of a wider commitment to reducing lifecycle greenhouse gas emissions from jet fuel by 50% per revenue ton kilometer by 2035 from 2019 levels, a reduction the carrier said is its most aggressive near-term target. JetBlue earlier pledged to reach net zero emissions by 2040, a decade ahead of a broader airline industry target. The growing use of carbon credits is controversial, as critics argue that many of the investments don’t or can’t guarantee a reduction in emissions elsewhere. An October report from Carbon Market Watch found that Europe’s leading airlines mislead consumers with claims they can fly guilt-free by using offsets to neutralize the environmental impact of air travel, and United CEO Scott Kirby has been a vocal critic of companies that rely on the programs as their sole response to climate change. With a growing supply of green fuel, “the time is now to maximize investment into the space and accelerate our uptake of SAF,” Sara Bogdan, JetBlue’s director of sustainability and environmental social governance, said in an email Thursday. The carrier describes carbon offsets as as a “powerful tool” that allowed it to immediately address emissions when devising a reduction plan in 2019, before it had regular access to SAF.JetBlue isn’t giving up on offsets entirely. The company will continue to purchase a “small quantity of voluntary high-integrity credits” for flying from 2024 and to compensate for emissions from expanding its international flights, Bogdan said. It will also work with experts to address concerns about offset programs and evaluate which bring the biggest benefit. “We do see an opportunity for greater transparency from the carbon credit market,” Bogdan said. <br/>
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Leisure airline French Bee is bullish on its business to the US, even as JetBlue Airways and Norse Atlantic Airways prepare to ratchet up competition on popular transatlantic routes to Paris. Privately-held French Bee is in the midst of its own US expansion. The airline will begin new flights to Miami from its Paris Orly base on December 15. And next year, the carrier plans to expand its offerings to Los Angeles and Newark ahead of what CEO Marc Rochet thinks will be a banner summer with “very strong” travel demand. “We’ve been a bit surprised,” Rochet said in an interview on travelers’ seemingly insatiable appetite to fly places on both sides of the Atlantic. Ticket sales, he said, are split about equally between both France and the US. In addition to Los Angeles, Miami, and Newark, French Bee serves San Francisco in the US, as well as the islands of Reunion and Tahiti. Robust travel demand is not unique to French Bee. Both European and US carriers are seeing a similar phenomenon with executives from International Airlines Group to KLM and United Airlines also saying the same thing. They cite everything from people being unable to travel for nearly two years during the pandemic, to the strong US dollar that makes it cheaper for Americans — and anyone earning dollars — to travel to Europe. The outlook has the industry confident that it could buck the economic tide that may be headed for recession.<br/>
An Aer Lingus cabin crew manager has lost a discrimination case which claimed female flight attendants were being “sexualised” by uniform rules requiring them to wear heels and nylons. Elizabeth Barry’s legal team argued that the airline’s Louise Kennedy-designed uniform, adopted in 2020, “still perpetuates the ‘trolley dolly’ image of its female cabin crew” and that there was a “strong association between high heels and female sexuality”. The Workplace Relations Commission (WRC) was told that although flat shoes were worn on board aircraft, female flight attendants “must wear high heels when in uniform” outside the plane unless they had a medical exemption letter. Barry lodged two statutory claims against the airline, one under the Payment of Wages Act 1977 over a pay cut during the Covid-19 pandemic and a second under the Employment Equality Act 1998 alleging discrimination on the grounds of gender over the uniform rules. The claims were denied by the airline at hearing and were rejected by the commission in a decision published on Thursday. “In being compelled to wear a uniform that is far less practical and comfortable and that portrays an outdated and sexualised image of women, the complainant is degraded in her professional duties,” said Leonora Frawley BL, instructed by Maryse Jennings of KOD Lyons, for Barry. Frawley raised design concerns about the women’s jacket in the uniform and said the flat shoes issued to staff for use on board were “quite flimsy” while men wore “fit for purpose” lace-up shoes.<br/>
Eurowings significantly expands its presence at Graz in Summer 2023 by establishing an aircraft base there and connecting the capital of Styria in Austria with seven new destinations in Greece, Cyprus, and Egypt, plus 25 weekly connections to German cities. The low-cost wholly-owned subsidiary of the Lufthansa Group will station one Airbus aircraft at Graz, marking the opening of its 11th crew base, the carrier announced in a statement. Seven new destinations to popular holiday destinations include Karpathos, Chania, Kerkyra, Kos Hippocrates, Chania, and Rhodes (Greece), Larnaca (Cyprus), and Hurghada (Egypt). An expansion of capacity to Palma de Mallorca (Spain) is also planned. In addition, Eurowings will increase the range of city connections between Graz and Germany, aimed at business travellers. New routes will be launched to Berlin Brandenburg Int'l and Hamburg Helmut Schmidt while capacity will be increased to Düsseldorf and Stuttgart Manfred Rommel, giving travellers greater flexibility.<br/>