Former commercial airline pilot Todd Smith joined Extinction Rebellion's protest against Farnborough Airport's expansion last Saturday, January 27, alongside Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg and members of the XR Waverley and Borders group who organised the march. Smith has flown jets for well-known airlines such as Thomas Cook, and rose to prominence after joining XR and campaigning against the damage the aviation industry is inflicting on the planet. Video courtesy of Zoe Broughton.
Category
🗞
NewsTranscript
00:00 Hello everyone, welcome. We're here down in Farnborough town centre this morning and
00:05 we're very shortly going to be marching down towards Farnborough Airport which
00:09 happens to be the biggest private jet airport in the UK and furthermore they
00:14 actually plan to expand their already obscene amount of flights. On average
00:19 only 2.5 people are on each one of their flights and 40% of their flights have no
00:24 passengers on at all. More recently there's even been a company that's
00:29 offering to charter private jet owners dogs to Dubai from Farnborough Airport. So
00:36 obviously we're in this climate and ecological emergency, we have a very very
00:42 limited carbon budget left if one at all and so surely to expand private jet use
00:48 in this critical moment for life on earth is absolutely absolutely
00:52 insanity. So we're here today out in force demanding that Farnborough Airport
00:57 listen to the public, they could do many things to change the
01:02 trajectory that we're on, fit for the future. We've put a consultation in with
01:07 Farnborough and we've recommended that they could repurpose their airport
01:10 making it truly sustainable and fit for the future but of course that's going to
01:14 look like an airport that's fit for the masses, not these private jet users
01:18 and these ultra wealthy elites. We're obviously limited in technology as well
01:23 so we believe in deliberative democratic processes, obviously extinction
01:28 rebellions, further demand of citizens assemblies. We've already had several
01:32 assemblies that have recommended a ban on polluting private jets which so far
01:36 has been ignored. So we're out here in force demanding that that is listened to
01:41 and if we came together, I'm a former airline pilot, I used to fly for
01:45 Thomas Cook. This is not only a major threat to all life on earth but
01:49 especially aviation workers. We saw during the COVID-19 pandemic what
01:54 happens when we need a rapid reduction in air travel. Aviation workers are the
01:58 first to bear the brunt, millions lost their jobs so we'd rather plan through
02:03 early design rather than late disaster and we're also championing the idea of
02:07 workers assemblies where aviation workers can come together who know the
02:11 industry best, beyond the short-term thinking of business leaders and
02:15 politicians and decide what the future of their industry should look like and
02:19 how we could make it much fairer and obviously that's going to be even no
02:23 private jets or very limited and significant reduction in frequent flying
02:27 and then some of us might actually still be able to travel for essential reasons.
02:32 So yeah, hope to hear more as the day progresses.