A BUDGET airline offering an all-you-can-fly deal for last-minute bookings has been branded “reckless” by an MSP.
Hungarian airline Wizz Air is offering consumers unlimited last-minute flights for £533, with an early-adopter offer of £445 from September 25.
Members of the scheme can only make bookings within three days of departure.
The offer has been heavily criticised by Scottish Green MSP Mark Ruskell, however Wizz Air has insisted that by helping to fill flights the scheme actually "reduction in emission intensity".
The Mid-Scotland and Fife MSP told The National that in order “to reduce carbon emissions, we must cut the demand for high-carbon flights".
“Selling a pass for unlimited flights is a reckless offer in the face of the climate crisis, we need companies to take every action possible to reduce carbon emissions.
“Taxation has a key role to play if we are to transform the way we travel, with a particular focus on shifting frequent business travellers away from high-carbon aviation and onto low-carbon rail."
In June, the Scottish Greens proposed a £1000-per-head private jet tax, which they said would "cut the number of jets in our sky and ensure that those who are polluting our planet are paying for the damage they are doing".
Ruskell said the Scottish Government could also "reduce emissions from the aviation industry by the introduction of an Air Departure Tax, which was passed by the Scottish Parliament in 2016".
Wizz Air’s Airbus A320-200 series seats a maximum of 180 passengers. According to figures published by the airline, their planes produce 55.9 grams of CO2 per passenger, per km. For a fully booked flight that equates to 10.06kg per km.
The amount of CO2 emitted for fully booked flights from Edinburgh Airport are:
- Gdansk - 1385.30km– 13,935.87kg
- Budapest 1108.84km – 11,157.14kg
- Bucharest - 2419.23km – 24,339.98kg
- Warsaw - 1625.78km – 16,358.59kg
Wizz Air also has flights from Aberdeen and Glasgow.
A Wizz Air spokesperson told The National: “The new product not only helps travellers discover Wizz Air’s extensive network but, in fact, contributes to maximising the load factor during the last 72 hours before the flight.
“High load factor is a crucial efficiency driver and leads to reduction in emission intensity. Wizz Air is proud to have the lowest carbon emissions intensity among our airline competitors, making it the most sustainable flying option.
“We continue investing into the best fuel-efficient technology, maintaining young fleet age, operating point to point flights and executing high load factors – all contributing to our commitment of further reducing our CO2 emissions per passenger/km by 25% by 2030.”
