THE aviation industry is a major contributor to air and noise pollution, a situation that has seen Zimbabwe's aviation industry battling to come up with mechanisms to cut down on emissions.

Zimbabwe, like many other African countries, has in place environmental legislation that addresses the problem of aviation pollution although the process of quantifying emissions is still a mammoth task.

Although given a choice many people in the country would prefer travelling by air than any other mode of transport, the advantages are far outweighed by the damage perpetrated onto the environment.

In interview yesterday, Air Zimbabwe acting chief executive officer, Captain Oscar Madombwe said owing to the seriousness of the matter, some European countries have banned some types of planes from landing in their countries.

He said these types include the pure jet and Boeing 707 among others.

Capt Madombwe said Air Zimbabwe, like many other airlines across the

world, is responsible for air pollution through direct emissions into the air by its crafts.

This, as a result, has caused serious consequences on ozone depletion and subsequently climate changes.

"Aviation pollution is a major challenge in the airline business worldwide but this is mainly due to how the planes are designed, an aspect which has to be addressed by the air craft manufacturers if we are to effectively deal with the matter," Capt Madombwe said.

He said aircraft are highly mechanised and the complication mainly lies on the ways to get complete combustion of fuel, the length of the contrail the plane leaves and the amount of noise it makes during take off and landing.

"It is just like in the case of motor vehicles, one can help reduce the level of emission but it is not possible to completely deal with the issue of air pollution. We, however, comply with the strict requirements of maintenance as stipulated by the manufacturer and in the case by Boeing."

He said regular checks on aircraft is one of the simplest ways to minimise the level of air pollution while some technologies that include installing hush kits have helped deal with the problem of noise pollution.

"We have certain 'noisy' types of aircraft such as the Boeing 737 and 707, which is not allowed to land in Europe but we use them in our regional and domestic destinations," Capt Madombwe said.

He said although the aspect of noise pollution is an issue in Europe, there is no big fuss over it in most African countries.

This is due to communities living near to Africa's airports' lack of awareness on their rights regarding noise pollution.

Secretary for Environment and Tourism, Mrs Margaret Sangarwe said the country's Environmental Management Act recognises the impact aviation pollution has on communities particularly those that live near airports.

She said communities living close to airports bear the brunt of noise pollution and risk having their health compromised.

"Although we have the legislation in place, there is nothing significant on aviation pollution internationally in terms of how to curb it and how to deal with offenders. Studies are still being conducted at both international and local levels on how to effectively address the problem," she said.

Mrs Sangarwe said quantifying emissions and measures to reduce it are a major challenge although she said her Ministry is advocating systems that would see them control pollution.

"We have the carbon tax system in the case of our vehicles although motorists are not taxed according to how they emit. The introduction of aviation tax would see airlines getting incentives to replace aging, inefficient planes with cleaner, quieter and fuel efficient ones," Mrs Sangarwe said.

She said the increased damage to the ozone layer caused by air travels have seen other countries advocating for higher air tickets and an elimination of subsidies for jet fuel.