Climate change and air travel – Airlines/Aviation News

With recent incidents of extreme turbulence faced by airplanes, and climate change being cited as the main reason, news reports indicate how change in climate conditions, especially heat waves, have a deadly effect on air travel. Hotter days are worse for flying and hotter climate conditions in various regions of the world can lead to difficulty in flying an aircraft. So if climate change is disrupting air travel, it is clearly unpleasant news for an industry that is set to reach 9.7 billion global passenger traffic by the end of the year.

The recent incidents of severe turbulence that struck Qatar Airways and Singapore Airlines flights are two examples of how climate change is a possible threat to flights due to hotter temperatures at ground level, making it difficult for airplanes to gain enough lift to take flight.

In the past, as per the US Federal Aviation Administration, 163 passengers and crew on US flights have been seriously injured by turbulence between 2009 and 2022. As per the FAA, more than 2.9 million people fly in the US every day. As many as 12 people were injured after a Qatar Airways flight from Doha to Dublin was hit with turbulence while flying over Turkey in 

May. Six passengers and six crew members were injured, eight of whom were taken to the hospital after assessment. Severe turbulence also struck a Singapore Airlines flight recently, resulting in the death of one person and leaving more than 100 others injured. Some 48 people are still hospitalised.

Meteorologists and aviation analysts suggest these turbulence encounters have been increasing over the years and have potential impact on flying conditions.

Last year, scientists from the University of Reading in the UK reported that severe turbulence had risen by 55% between 1979 and 2020 on the frequently used north Atlantic route. They attributed this increase to changes in high altitude wind speeds caused by warmer air from carbon emissions.

This year, too, as per University of Reading professor Paul Williams, “Turbulence on flights can be caused by storms, mountains, and strong air currents called jet streams. In the case of clear air turbulence, it can be difficult to avoid because it doesn’t show up on the weather radar in the flight deck. The last fatality caused by clear-air turbulence on a commercial flight occurred on December 28, 1997, on a United Airlines flight from Tokyo to Honolulu.”

As strong evidence that turbulence is increasing because of climate change, Williams says, “We recently discovered that severe clear-air 

turbulence in the north Atlantic has increased by 55% since 1979. Our latest future projections indicate a doubling or trebling of severe turbulence in the jet streams in the coming decades, if climate continues as we expect.”

Even US transportation secretary Pete Buttigieg commented there are indications that turbulence is up by about 15%, an increase he attributed to climate change. “The reality is, the effects of climate change are already upon us in terms of our transportation,” Buttigieg said in a news interview recently. Even if incidents like the one on Singapore Airlines are a rarity, the country is gearing up for a changing climate.

Hotter climes can easily cause weight restrictions for flight take-off – which also means limited passengers seating, luggage, cargo, and even fuel.

While the year 2024 is off to a strong start despite economic and geopolitical uncertainties, it is the busiest election year ever, and a reason to see aviation as a catalyst for growth.

It is currently difficult to reduce emissions from the aviation sector, and flying less could possibly be the only way to reduce emissions, but an estimate of passengers flying every year is huge. For instance, reports claim that in 2022, 917 million passengers took over 15 million US-based flights—an average of more than 42,000 flights per day.