March has been a hectic month for travelling. I’ve run workshops in Berlin, London (twice) and Zurich as well as set the 2011 European Baccalaureate examination in Brussels and next week I am in Italy. All this has meant a lot of flights from my local airport, Cardiff. The airline I use, KLM, rewards me for this with a Gold Elite Plus Card and frequent flyer air miles. It does make travelling a lot easier and I’ve written many of my blogs while waiting in the executive lounge in Schiphol Airport in Amsterdam. However I’m not proud of my global carbon footprint. I’m also not very sure that people who fly a lot should be rewarded for their loyalty with access to lounges and offers of subsidised flights with the air miles they have accumulated. It would actually make more environmental sense if they were taxed more heavily to offset all the emissions of carbon dioxide and oxides of nitrogen created by flying. To add to this I discovered that, since the clocks changed on Sunday, KLM have made another change which further increases the inefficiency of their flights. Everyone would like the seat next to them on a plane to be vacant but it is an added bonus when it happens by chance. Since 27 March 2011 KLM have introduced a new business class on all their European flights. Business class passengers are guaranteed that the seat next to them will be empty. Does it really make environmental (or even economic?) sense to be flying planes with guaranteed vacant seats?

KLM business class seats