Charles Alcock is managing editor of the AIN Media Group, having rejoined the company in 2019. He has been an aviation journalist since 1986, and previously worked for AIN from 1990 to 2017, most recently as editor-in-chief. His main focus is on covering new aviation technology and business models, as well as international news.
Having been raised in the London area, Alcock studied at the University of Manchester in the UK and earned an honors degree in Politics and Modern History. He speaks English and French, and some German.

Managing Editor

Charles Alcock

TAG Aviation is tapping its own experience of having to comply with the European Union’s emissions trading scheme (ETS) to provide support to other business aircraft operators in dealing with what remains a burdensome process. Through the new TAG ETS Solutions service, the Switzerland-based business aviation services group can provide a full turnkey package covering all requirements for monitoring, reporting and verifying carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions, as well as actually purchasing carbon credits, which operators will have to do beginning in April next year.
The cost of the full turnkey package will be approximately $5,500 per year, but operators can opt to pay less to have TAG staff handle only particular elements of the process. “The point is that no one has yet created an ‘A-Z’ package, which is at the heart of our offering,” TAG Aviation CEO Robert Wells told AIN.
TAG operates a management/charter fleet of more than 100 aircraft under three separate air operator certificates. The company has already had to put in place an ETS compliance process for its own aircraft and now believes it can help other operators benefit from economies of scale, particularly when it comes to purchasing carbon credits.
Wells indicated that TAG ETS Solutions will be well suited to operators based outside Europe, for whom compliance is particularly awkward and confusing. Dave Weil, who is helping TAG to market the service in the U.S., asserts that the new support package will be a more cost-effective approach even for charter operators and corporate flight departments that have already started the compliance process. 
Tasks include ascertaining in which EU state ETS compliance will be processed; getting the operator’s compliance plan approved; interacting with Eurocontrol about the tool used for calculating emissions; and handling the verification process. TAG ETS Solutions is being managed by Martina Becher, who has led the company’s own compliance efforts.
“The potential penalties for not complying with ETS are significant, right up to being barred from European airspace,” warned Wells. “This turnkey approach will be of great help to operators who have found the whole process difficult and complicated.”

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