Miles and miles and miles

The BBC reported today that, in 2009, air passenger traffic declined by its largest amount since 1945.

Whoa, there! I certainly didn't notice many empty seats on my travels, and I wasn't even flying with budget airlines. So maybe there have been fewer flights operated, through airline codeshares and so on. And that would surely be a good thing, environmentally speaking.

Which brings me to this: air miles. I just calculated my travel mileage for 2009. With Helsinki as my base, that involved a round-the-world ticket, a return to Bangkok, a return to Cincinnati, and a couple of visits to the UK.

Total air travel for 2009: 58,425 air miles (94,034 km).

2010 has already kicked off with a round trip to Washington DC, and the question people are asking is ... where next?

Watch this space! But meanwhile, maybe I'd better get out there and plant a tree or two. I think I have carbon debt.