1F

So this is what 180,000 airmiles and an American Express companion ticket can get you. Tokyo to London in the comfort of seat 1F on BA006. We flew out on the James Bond flight, BA007.

Shockingly only 4 of the 14 seats in this cabin were occupied. Which poses some interesting questions about the economics of the airline industry. I assume that having empty seats on some flights is balanced by being at full capacity on other flights, keeping the high premium.

Should I feel guilty about the carbon footprint of this flight? Probably.

But then again probably not. I don't agree with the view that First or Business is creating a larger carbon footprint than economy, as described in this Guardian article.

You can't separate the economics of each cabin in a single flight. If you took out all the First, Business and Premium Economy seats and had just economy seats, the airline industry would go bust. Simple as that. So there is one carbon footprint for a flight, divided by the number of passengers, regardless of how much space they are taking.

Should we fly less? Probably.

Should we stop flying all together? No. Politics, society and commerce are too dependent on global aviation; and this is not a bad thing.

Can we make the airline industry zero or low carbon? In time, yes. In soon enough time? I'm not sure...