Low cost air travel is soaring (pun intended) and Europe’s working class contingent have become the new jetsetters of the region. Increased air travel for shorter distances across the European continent, however, has created a whole new set of issues on the carbon emissions front. Even with the increase in fuel prices, in many cases these airlines make it cheaper to travel by air than by train.

Low cost carriers are growing at 9 percent a year, and from an environmental point of view that is a problem, said Christian Brand, a researcher at Oxford University who specializes in the mathematical modeling of transportation emissions. Their cheap prices encourage more travel.

Air travel of all kinds has increased, including private corporate jets and freight flights carrying fruit to markets all over the world. But the growth in passengers on European low-cost airlines has been phenomenal, almost doubling to 120 million per year in 2007 from about 60 million per year in 2005, according to the European Low Fares Airline Association. [NY Times]

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