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Curb cheap flights, urge climate researchers
Hilary Osborne, Guardian
Carbon dioxide emissions from air travel could account for two-thirds of the UK’s emissions targets by 2050 unless the government takes action to restrict demand for flights, academics said today.
The government’s policies on aviation, which support an expansion in airports that will more than double passenger numbers from 200 million in 2003 to 470 million in 2030, will prevent it reaching its targets on emissions, a report by researchers from Oxford University said.
(17 Oct 2006)
For the Super-Rich, It’s Time to Upgrade the Old Jumbo Jet
Joe Sharkey, NY Times
The tremendously rich are different not only from you and me but also from the merely rich. For one thing, some of them have really nice airplanes.
This is not about the presumed titans of the private jet universe like the mighty Gulfstream G5’s or Global Expresses, whose occupants can leap continents and oceans at high speed and in plush comfort, without all the inconveniences of commercial airports, airline schedules and, well, strangers.
This is about big, long-haul airliners that are converted to private jets and can carry not only pampered passengers and their entourages, but also, in some cases, their Rolls Royces and racehorses. These are specially equipped, privately owned jumbo jets – the kind that normally carry as many 300 to 400 passengers – but reconfigured with interiors designed for the enjoyment of, at most, a couple of dozen.”
…. Luthnansa Technik is now working on preliminary designs for the much-delayed Airbus A380, which will be the biggest plane in the sky once it is available. In addition to its size, which will allow for even more luxury, the A380 has a feature that may appeal to the most status-conscious of owners, who may travel with underlings. That feature harks back to the days of ocean liners, where social classes were physically segregated.
‘The A380 will offer a chance to separate the senior V.I.P.’s from the junior V.I.P.’s because you have two decks, and they can be kept apart,’ Mr. Duenhaupt said.”
(17 Oct 2006)
Submitter MM says: “Adding up the numbers, it’s clear that several hundred privately operated commercial-sized airliners ply the skies with few passengers, including 39 Boeing 747s.”
Union Disrupts Plan to Send Ailing Workers to India for Cheaper Medical Care
Saritha Rai, NY Times
A few weeks ago, Carl Garrett, a 60-year-old North Carolina resident, was packing his bags to fly to New Delhi and check into the plush Indraprastha Apollo Hospital to have his gall bladder removed and the painful muscles in his left shoulder repaired. Mr. Garrett was to be a test case, the first company-sponsored worker in the United States to receive medical treatment in low-cost India.
But instead of making the 20-hour flight, Mr. Garrett was grounded by a stormy debate between his employer, which saw the benefits of using the less expensive hospitals in India, and his union, which raised questions about the quality of overseas health care and the issue of medical liability should anything go wrong….
With medical costs in India routinely 80 percent lower than in the United States, experts predict that globally standardized health care delivered in countries like India and Thailand will eventually change the face of the health care business.
Providing health care to foreigners could generate $20 billion for India by 2012, according to a study by McKinsey & Company, the consulting firm, although McKinsey did not say how many patients that figure represents. With 150,000 overseas patients last year – though only a small fraction of them Americans – India is already the global leader in importing foreign patients for low-cost treatment. Its best hospitals have Western-trained doctors and are equipped with modern equipment.
…. Zubin Daruwalla, health care analyst at the consulting firm Frost & Sullivan, said there was no uniform code in India on what could be considered medical negligence and what compensation ought to be paid. ‘Compared with the huge payouts in the United States, Indian courts award small amounts,’ Mr. Daruwalla said.”
(11 Oct 2006)
