3 ms·

Sadly, France and The Netherlands bailing out Air France and KLM last week, resp., forced the hand and diminished leverage for the German federal state I guess.

Sadly, France and The Netherlands bailing out Air France and KLM last week, resp., forced the hand and diminished leverage for the German federal state I guess. I thought subsidies (to former state monopolies, of all things) was the one thing that need explicit consent under EU treaties. Now the people of DE, FR, and NL have to bail out a business that has no perspective to return a profit for the foreseeable future. Those who have protested against excessive air travel have to pay the bills long term (before coronavirus, flight shaming and "Fridays for Future" was a thing). I think this is a big missed opportunity to come up with a sustainable agenda to put a large electorate behind as a perspective out of the coronavirus economy crisis.

StreamBright 7y ago
The problem is that these companies are so inefficient and the conserved the 30 years old business practices very well internally because the governments are keep bailing them out. Maybe it would be for the better to let them fall and start over. Build an airliner that operates effectively and widen the margin. There are other alternatives. For 10 - 15B EUR (estimated) we could connect the major European cities with a high speed train network powered by renewables / green energy. If we keep bailing them out this surely won't happen.
- lostlogin 7y ago
  Your point brings up rail companies. I can’t see that they would be doing great right now, but a brief search doesn’t seem to show that they are circling the drain. I wonder why?
  - StreamBright 7y ago
    Not sure. The good thing about rails vs flight is that you can swap out the energy source. As your energy production gets greener your entire travel gets greener. With airlines, it is not even a remote possibility to change from kerosine based engines to electric or other green alternatives, Europe is very small and relatively dense. It would be a great way of commuting.
deleted 7y ago
[deleted]

StreamBright 7y ago

The problem is that these companies are so inefficient and the conserved the 30 years old business practices very well internally because the governments are keep bailing them out. Maybe it would be for the better to let them fall and start over. Build an airliner that operates effectively and widen the margin. There are other alternatives. For 10 - 15B EUR (estimated) we could connect the major European cities with a high speed train network powered by renewables / green energy. If we keep bailing them out this surely won't happen.

lostlogin 7y ago
Your point brings up rail companies. I can’t see that they would be doing great right now, but a brief search doesn’t seem to show that they are circling the drain. I wonder why?
- StreamBright 7y ago
  Not sure. The good thing about rails vs flight is that you can swap out the energy source. As your energy production gets greener your entire travel gets greener. With airlines, it is not even a remote possibility to change from kerosine based engines to electric or other green alternatives, Europe is very small and relatively dense. It would be a great way of commuting.

deleted 7y ago

[deleted]