Clean Up Your Emissions! Flightplanners.co.uk Now Provides Carbon Zero Flights

PRLog (Press Release) - Sep 04, 2006 -
FlightPlanners.co.uk, an online travel agency, is pleased to announce the go-live of its “Carbon Zero” programme.

This facility allows their customers -booking online or through their Isle of Wight  based call centre- to make an additional payment which is then used for managed forestry or energy efficiency programs. This effectively offsets the amount of carbon dioxide their flight will produce.

The calculation of the amount of CO2 and the offset price is carried out by co2balance.com. The price of the CO2 offset is based on the departure and arrival airports and is seamlessly integrated into the online booking process.  The customer contribution option is an op-out, rather than opt-in scheme, which we hope will encourage consumers to use the facility.   Customers are given the opportunity to offset their CO2 emissions in full or  alternatively they can offset a lesser amount in line with their budget.

The CO2 offset methods used by co2balance.com have been validated by Bournemouth University’s School of Conservation Sciences.

FlightPlanners.co.uk Managing Director George Georgiou says “We are raising awareness and providing environmentally friendly options for customers, whilst at the same time maintaining consumer choice. We feel that this can be done without hindering our competitiveness.  It is also clear to us that there is a demand for ‘green flights’ and that this demand is set to grow.”  

One of the prime concerns of FlightPlanners.co.uk is that all money collected should go into schemes that are fully “additional”.  For a scheme to be described as additional, the benefit of the activity taking place must not have occurred without the investment of the client’s funds. If funds from clients seeking to offset carbon dioxide are invested in a project that would have happened regardless of the client’s investment, it is not additional. If a scheme is not additional, it cannot legitimately be used for carbon offsetting as the benefit accruing from it will occur regardless of the investment of the client’s funds.

FlightPlanners.co.uk was established in 2005 by George Georgiou and Andrew Sims in the belief they could deliver better service with a lower cost base than existing travel websites.  As a member of the Freedom Travel Group, the management team of FlightPlanners.co.uk is free to concentrate on the growth of the company and the development of the website and IT infrastructure, whilst all back office activities are managed by Freedom.

www.FlightPlanners.co.uk runs on its own custom built software platform, ensuring hardware, software and maintenance costs are kept to a minimum, whilst allowing maximum scalability and flexibility to react to market trends.

FlightPlanners.co.uk
Contact:  George Georgiou, 08704 606 500
Email: george@flightplanners.co.uk
Website: www.flightplanners.co.uk

co2balance.com
Contact: Paul Chiplen, 0783 7766 020
Email: paul.chiplen@co2balance.com
Website: www.co2balance.com