Airbus and partners call for end in ETS trade conflict

 They made the move following the suggestion by Wu Hailong, China's new ambassador to the European Union, that Chinese airlines will not buy European airplanes as long as the EU insists on including foreign airlines in its emissions trading system (ETS). Wu said that Chinese orders of around 35 Airbus A330 jets had been cancelled and that another 10 orders of A380s were in danger of being cancelled because of the ETS.
 In joint letters, the nine companies' CEOs urged the four countries' leaders - Prime Ministers David Cameron (UK), Francois Fillon (France), Angela Merkel (Germany) and Mariano Rajoy (Spain) - seek an acceptable solution through the ICAO Council in as short timeframe as possible, to offer industry's support in providing resources to make this possible.
 The CEOs confirm that as a response to European ETS, aviation related businesses are now faced with real concrete action with serious consequences on the European aviation business.
 In many of the countries opposed to ETS, countermeasures and restrictions on European airlines are in preparation, such as special taxes and even traffic rights limitations. In China, approval for US$12 billion worth of Airbus orders has been suspended. Airbus estimates that this will jeopardise more than 1,000 Airbus jobs in Europe and at least another 1,000 in the supply chain.

China, together with Russia, the US and other countries, rejects the inclusion of its airlines in the ETS, under which they have to pay a carbon tax for every plane that enters or leaves an EU airport.

 The nine CEOs fully expect the list of suspensions, cancellations and punitive actions to grow as other important markets continue to oppose ETS. They see the situation as becoming intolerable for the European aviation industry. "A situation that Europe can ill-afford in the current economic climate."
 The CEOs therefore urgently request consultations at the level of the EU Council and, most importantly, with the States taking this retaliatory trade action. "The aim must be to find a compromise solution and to have these punitive trade measures stopped before it is too late."
 "We have always believed that only a global solution would be adequate to resolve the problem of global aviation emissions. This solution can only be found in ICAO, which has recently appointed a high level dedicated group to propose a global framework for international aviation emissions by the end of this year," the CEOs claimed in their letter.
 The CEOs reminded the governments that the aviation industry has always supported the need to increase the sustainability of worldwide aviation by reducing its environmental impact. Furthermore, aviation supports market based measures as one important means of achieving this goal. "As such, our industry remains in supporter of global Emissions Trading Schemes (ETS) applied to aviation."
 The CEOs are:
Airbus:                       Tom Enders
Air Berlin:                  Hartmut Mehdorn
Air France:                 Alexandre de Juniac
British Airways:        Keith Williams
Iberia:                         Antonio Vazquez
Lufthansa:                 Christoph Franz
MTU Aero Engines: Egon W. Behle
Safran:                       Jean-Paul Herteman
Virgin Atlantic:          Steve Ridgway