{"id":62470,"date":"2020-10-03T07:55:15","date_gmt":"2020-10-03T06:55:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/eco123.info\/en\/?p=62470"},"modified":"2020-10-02T21:20:16","modified_gmt":"2020-10-02T20:20:16","slug":"no-55-take-off-and-landing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/eco123.info\/en\/short-stories-en\/no-55-take-off-and-landing\/","title":{"rendered":"N\u00ba 55 – Take-off and Landing"},"content":{"rendered":"

Saturday, 3rd October 2020<\/strong><\/p>\n

by Uwe Heitkamp<\/em><\/p>\n

This week, Europe\u2019s largest airline, Lufthansa, took an important decision that is attracting attention all over Europe. The airline\u2019s flight academy based in Bremen is recommending that 700 trainee pilots interrupt their training because there will be no need for new pilots over the next few years. Lufthansa wants to take 150 aeroplanes out of operation on a permanent basis, and consequently now has too many pilots on board. It will be a long time before these pilots retire and before any new pilots will need to be contracted. How is TAP (Ryanair etc.) dealing with the reduced number of bookings for its flights? And how is Ant\u00f3nio Costa handling the situation?<\/p>\n

Shall we carry on flying?<\/em> The Portuguese state\u2019s decision to press ahead with the Montijo airport violates two of the main pillars of the European Ecological Pact: fighting global climate change and reversing the biodiversity crisis. In an article published last week in Science magazine, Jos\u00e9 Alves, a researcher at the University of Aveiro (UA) and Maria Dias, a researcher with BirdLife International, called on the government to stop the project and turn Portugal into a successful example of the implementation of the European Ecological Pact.<\/p>\n

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The article (https:\/\/science.sciencemag.org\/cgi\/doi\/10.1126\/science.abe4325) highlights the contradiction between the European Commission\u2019s intention to change the European economies to more sustainable models (European Ecological Pact) and the environmental authorisation issued by a member state (Portugal) for the construction of Montijo Airport, in the heart of the major wetland area in the country, the Tagus Estuary.<\/p>\n

As the two researchers point out, \u2018the Tagus Estuary in front of the Vasco da Gama bridge is a major international hub for the migratory birds using the East Atlantic Flyway, serving as a bridge between their breeding grounds in the northern hemisphere and their wintering grounds in southern Europe and Africa, used by an estimated 300,000 waterfowl.\u2019<\/p>\n