British Airways lowers fare prices and thanks GAP Institute for its contribution in shortening the flying distance
25/09/2009
“If you happened to fly from Vienna (Austria) to Pristina (Kosovo), or the other way around, you might have realized from the screen that instead of taking the shorter way over former-Yugoslavia, you had to fly over Hungary, Rumania, Bulgaria, Macedonia, and then enter Kosovo from its southern part.
This flight lasts 30 minutes longer, it costs more and contributes to air pollution” – this was the introduction of an analysis entitled “Kosovo air space: No trespassing!” published by GAP Institute on December 18, 2008. In this analysis among other things, GAP has asked the Kosovo Government to work on opening new corridors, in order to shorten the flying distance for Kosovars flying to other countries and vice versa. Ten months later the situation has changed completely. In the beginning of 2009, Montenegro decided to allow its air space to airplanes from Kosovo and those who have Kosovo as destination. Because of this, now the flying distance is shorter for 30 minutes, less fuel is consumed and the CO2 emission is lower. On September 24, 2009 British Airways became the first airline company to lower the fare price for 15 per cent, due to the shortening of flying distance. On a special occasion organized to announce the new fare prices, British Airways expressed special thanks to GAP Institute for its contribution towards this achievement with its publication of the analysis and the organization of a round table with the same title on December 18, 2008, which was attended by representatives of British Airways, KFOR representatives, representatives from the Kosovo Civil Aviation Office, American Embassy, environment experts etc. Since all airline companies benefit from the shortening of flight distance, GAP Institute hopes that other airline companies will follow the example of British Airways.
