Virgin Wants To Tow Airplanes To The Runway

Richard Branson was on BBC Five Live this morning talking about his recent plans to go green in a big way. He made some interesting points, particularly around the harm caused by short flights from, for example, Birmingham to London, when there is an 'adequate' train service that takes a comparable amount of time. As the owner of both Virgin Air and Virgin Trains, he'd know I guess.

Anyway, during the interview he talked of a plan to tow aeroplanes to the runway, rather then having them taxi and queue for 10 or 20 minutes at a time - all whilst emitting CO2. If it's true, as George Monbiot suggests, that aeroplanes are about as efficient as we can make them, giving that they're not changed in the decades we've been using them, then cutting down on emissions outside of the flight seems like a very sensible idea. Creating this 'starting grid' for planes prior to take-off would cut CO2 emissions from 2% to 1.5% and would lower the pollution levels for those people who live closest to the airports.

The real question is one of belief - talking green is a real winner at the moment, hence David Cameron and the Tory party here in the UK giving significant exposure to their 'green' credentials. However, the real test is five years from now - will Virgin still be green?

You can listen to a snippet of the interview below:

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