Environmentalists have accused Virgin Atlantic of double standards over an initiative to plant trees to compensate for the carbon dioxide emissions from limousines used to drive its customers to airports.
Sir Richard Branson's airline this week struck a deal with Volvo to provide chauffeur-driven transport for upper-class passengers to London-Heathrow, London-Gatwick and Manchester airports.
It said it was "actively exploring" options such as Carbon Neutral -- a controversial program which has divided the green community by planting trees to offset carbon emissions from everyday life.
Emissions from Virgin's limousine journeys could amount to a few hundred trees annually. But sustainable transport activists have pointed out that this would barely be a drop in the ocean compared with the amount of harmful pollution caused by the airline's fleet of 33 aircraft.
According to the UK government's formula, each kilometer traveled by an airline passenger on a long-haul flight accounts for 0.11kg of carbon dioxide. Hence, offsetting Virgin Atlantic's entire annual flight operation would involve planting 59 million trees -- which, according to the Forestry Commission, would cover 64,700 hectares -- the size of a large Highland estate.
Steve Hounsham, of the UK environmental pressure group Transport 2000, said: "For them to focus on the car ride to the airport rather than the air journey itself is somewhat missing the point. It's double standards -- perhaps an example of what we'd call a greenwash."
A Virgin Atlantic spokesman said that the limousine initiative was merely a part of a wider environmental strategy which would also involve the aircraft through lightening loads to cut fuel consumption.
"On any environmental issue, you always look at where the quick wins are," said the spokesman.
"Dealing with something like cars operating the upper-class fleet are obviously going to be an easier issue," he said.
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