Friday, November 24, 2006

A European conspiracy to close the low-cost airlines?

One might like them or hate them, but as a consumer and a European citizen, I feel that the low-cost flights represent an option that we cannot not afford to lose.

A look at accidents happening all around Europe, makes me a little worried:
- Ciampino airport closes for a fake bomb threat. Then when it opens again the italian politicians talk about closing it for good. The reason: it is polluting Rome!
Come on. Rome is probably one of the most polluted cities in Europe, why closing one of its smaller airports? And why the emphasis on the low-cost flights?
(here)
To me it sounds like the standard mafia-talk: we are going to go very sever about checking that all the vectors respect all the possible criteria, and bla bla bla.
Whatever!
- According to Eurostar, the flights and especially cheap ones, are polluting too much, much more than trains, so they have to stop growing at this rate, in Europe.
But wait, Eurostar isn't it the company running trains across Europe? What a surprise they find trains a better mean of transportation.
What about the little problem that finding a way by train (say) from Denmark to Italy is a nightmare, while it take 2 minutes on-line, with an airline?
Work better instead of trying to shut down the competition...
(anyway, it is here)
- Also in UK they are talking about raising taxes for flights because people pollute too much flying w.r.t. other ways of commuting. (see here)
Really? And guess who is going to be blocked first: the cheap companies, because they encourage this bad behavior...
Crazy. How are people supposed move from UK to the continent? All 60 millions of them stuffed in a TGV under the sea?
A good friend of mine is from Scotland and she told me that, because now everybody flies, the old ferries have been reduced or suspended... so no options either.

I hope I'm wrong and that I can keep deciding if I want to take expensive companies or cheap ones (or indeed a train).
And if this is the Europe they are building for us citizens, thanks but no thanks.

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