Airlines seek to escape climate-change dog house

VANCOUVER, British Columbia, June 6 (Reuters) International airline executives agree they are losing the public relations battle over their industry's role in global warming, but they are still grappling with how to win back public and political support.

Executives in Vancouver this week for the International Air Transport Association's (IATA) annual meeting, have warmed to carbon emissions trading, but only because it is viewed as less punitive than alternatives such as carbon taxes.

''We've lost the PR battle and we're not going to win the emissions battle by chattering with more PR about the past.

They (the public) want to see action,'' Leo Van Wijk, chief executive of KLM Royal Dutch Airlines, told his colleagues on Tuesday.

Van Wijk said the aviation industry is paying the price of ignoring warnings that environmental issues -- especially in Europe -- were becoming a political concern on a par with public and government worries over safety and security.

The airlines complain they have been unfairly cast as a bad guy in the debate over global warming, and accused environmental groups and regulators of ignoring the gains they have made in aircraft fuel efficiency and emission reduction.

IATA, which represents airlines with 94 percent of the world's scheduled flights, says aviation produces only about 2 percent of the world's carbon dioxide emissions and that will grow to only 3 percent by 2050, even with expected strong growth in passenger and freight traffic.

Chief executives of several airlines say regulators are targeting an industry still recovering from years of financial losses, while ignoring other polluters and the government's own role in promoting airline inefficiencies.

''We are clearly viewed as an easy target,'' Robert Milton, chairman of Air Canada , said on Monday in a panel discussion in which debate over environmental concerns almost overshadowed talk of the other issues facing the industry.

Milton and other airline leaders dismissed suggestions that people would stop flying because of environmental concerns, but said the usually fractious industry must act quickly and in a coordinated fashion to improve its image.

''We do have a good story. And we can show that at the end of day, when you account for all the facts and figures, you can fly rather than take the train because ecology-wise it is much more sound,'' said Lufthansa CEO Wolfgang Mayrhuber.

GLOBAL EMISSIONS TRADING Executives of some non-European airlines complained that with the issue of airline pollution being most hotly debated in Europe, there is a danger that region would dictate how all airlines deal with emissions reduction.

''I do not support a one size fits all plan,'' said Malaysia Airlines CEO Idris Jala. Another executive worried regulators may demand emission cuts from facilities in Africa that the infrastructure cannot obtain.

IATA said it is developing an industry plan for trading emission credits, and that any trading system has to be global to reflect the global nature of the industry and avoid it being used to distort trade.

''I think we have passed the stage of being in denial,'' said Singapore Airlines chief executive Chew Choon Seng said.

REUTERS PV DS1347