In addition to the presidential announcements expected in the run-up to the Paris Air Showthe ADP Group commissioned IFOP to survey Europeans' expectations of the airline industry. Nearly a thousand people were questioned in each of the European countries. five countries covered by the study (France, Germany, Italy, UK and Spain)with a slight over-representation of French audiences. This Paris Air Forum European Barometer - which is due to be renewed - naturally gives a prominent place to the issue of decarbonisation. More generally, it provides an opportunity to take stock of the travel habits of Europeans, and to gain a better understanding of their expectations and the efforts they are prepared to make to move towards a more virtuous mode of transport.
First observation: the democratising air travel in recent years has had its limitsparticularly in France. Indeed, the France would be the country studied where the proportion of inhabitants who take the plane at least once a year is the lowest (23%). Germany (40%), Italy (52%), Spain (53%) and above all the United Kingdom (56%) have much higher rates. The barometer even estimates that 38 % of French people never fly. The "frequent travellersThe French market is estimated at 7%.
These figures may help to explain a certain ambiguity in the French public's view of the airline industry, which permeates several aspects of the barometer. In particular - and surprisingly - the French are, along with GermansThe two populations least inclined to consider the aeronautics industry as a strategic priority that should be supported and protected. Another finding of the study is that 64 % of the French believe that the development of air transport will have to be limited by restrictive measures. But only 20 % of the French are in favour of coercive measures for their personal use, such as limiting the number of flights or taxing tickets... The vast majority of the French (80%) tend to favour technical progress, believing that new technologies should be developed to make aircraft less CO2-polluting, for example by developing hydrogen-powered aircraft.
La reduction in CO2 emissions is also the main expectation that the European public has of the airline industry over the next few years (56% in France, and even 63% in Germany). However, air transport is a long way down the list of business sectors in which the European population believes. When asked which industries are most likely to be reformed in the next few years in response to climate change, air transport came last in all five countries surveyed. Far behind were energy production, construction, agriculture and industry...
