Edinburgh Airport could be at centre of creating carbon free aviation industry, says director Gordon Robertson

Edinburgh could be at the centre of creating an aviation industry of the future, as an airport chief looks at options for moving towards carbon free travel.

Edinburgh Airport could be at the centre of creating a carbon free aviation industry of the future.

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Gordon Robertson, Edinburgh Airport’s director of communications and sustainability, said a bridge was needed between today’s carbon-fulled aviation sector and the carbon free one of the future and added ‘true leadership’ would create a path that other nations would follow.

Speaking at an online event organised by Edinburgh Chamber of Commerce and the city council, he said: “What our country needs, and what aviation needs, is a bridge between current carbon-based aviation industry and a future, carbon-free aviation industry.

"A bridge that might have an impact in surprising and welcome ways.”

He said that by taking an imaginative approach in the coming decades, a bridge could be created that would be widely supported and embraced by other nations – meaning the Capital could become the world’s leading green tourism destination.

“Imagine that us all, Scotland’s tourism and visitor industry, take responsibility for some or all of the aviation carbon emitted while our customers are in the air,” he said.

"Airlines can’t take it all, and why should they when we all benefit from what they do? But that burden is surprisingly small when it is shared widely.

"Our calculation is that it is less than £5 per head per European passenger at current carbon prices.

“So, let’s say we find a way to gather funds to meet the cost of carbon, so every passenger flying into Edinburgh could do so carbon neutrally. We could then go further.

"We could say that not only could we meet the cost, in fact we will use those funds to generate some of the most exciting carbon reduction schemes right here in Scotland, and in Edinburgh. Things that would show leadership that other countries might want to follow.”

He added that, by creating a higher value for carbon for the travel trade scheme, real carbon reduction schemes would be created.

And by investing in projects in Edinburgh, he said people in the city would be able to see the results produced first-hand.

“This might be a true bridge to a new carbon free aviation future. We are excited about this because we hear target after target announced, but the practical delivery projects are short because there simply isn’t a revenue driven strategy. We want to help change the conversation,” he said.

The meeting was told that Edinburgh Airport is still 60 per cent down on the levels of pre-pandemic numbers.

But Mr Robertson said the airport’s struggles through the pandemic shouldn’t stop it being able to play a key role in the city’s journey to net zero carbon.

“We all share in the ambition for a cleaner, greener future. It would be easy for us to prioritise recovery and recovery alone,” he said.

"Like others in the travel and tourism sector, we are all on our knees. We are breathing but not living yet, like others. So we could put tackling climate change in box marked nice to do but not now - but we’re not and we won’t.”

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