The skies are looking to be a little less friendly in a few years if you plan on travelling to Europe from Asia. If that worries you, you're not alone. As the Asia Times Online reports, a number of experts are worried about a potential collapse of the Asian travel market as a result.
In its never-ending quest to regulate every facet of living, the EU is imposing an emissions cap on flights entering or leaving EU airspace.
Given the amounts of carbon emissions generated by long-haul flights to Asia, Asian carriers are going to receive some pretty hefty fines that you can safely assume will be passed on to consumers. After all, some travel agencies are already slapping a carbon emissions tax to some packages.
While it's commendable what the EU is doing, surely there must be some thought for the Asian travel industry – an industry which pulls in roughly $100 billion USD annually. Surely this is a large enough of a market that this lobby should be able to make its voice heard in Brussels.
Before going through, let's see if a happy medium can't be reached where carbon emissions are reduced without the risk of killing an industry and denying many Asians of some of Europe's many tourist attractions.