By Paul M Allen

Flying back to the UK for Christmas was so much better this year.

At last, after years of hoping, the budget Irish airline Ryanair have opened up a route between Girona – the closest airport to us in northern Spain – and London Gatwick.

That means no more two-hour drive to Barcelona, a big relief when you have children in the car. Flight prices were cheaper than the carriers that operate out of Barcelona too. Plus we saved on the petrol consumed and the motorway tolls. And parking at Girona airport was about half the price.

All of which makes it cheaper and easier to make more frequent trips back to the UK to catch up with family and friends, or for people to come visit us. Our home town, and everyone we left behind there, have become that much more accessible, making the living abroad experience less isolating.

The explosion in cheap air travel, fuelled by a raft of budget airline companies, has had a similar impact for millions of other expatriate families around the world too.

In the old days moving abroad was more or less a permanent goodbye. Families wouldn’t see each other for years, if not decades, such was the expense of making the trip.

That’s no longer the case. The world is shrinking, and with it comes more upside and less downside to a life overseas.

But … there is an environmental price to pay for our globetrotting.

The UK government’s official Directgov website points out that air travel’s contribution to climate change is growing*. At present the sector accounts for 6.3% of UK total CO2 emissions, but by 2020 flying could make up 10-16% of the country’s contribution to climate change if the environmental impacts aren’t lessened, it notes.

And the increasing demand for air travel was highlighted with the recent announcement that the UK government has given the green light for a third runway to be built at Heathrow airport. The move, reports the BBC, will increase the number of flights at Heathrow from about 480,000 a year now to 702,000 by 2030**.

Other airports around the country are growing their traffic at the same time too – and this is to take the UK as just one example. Tally that up with the infrastructure expansions and rising flight volumes being seen at other airports around the world and we have a sizable problem.

And while we can all do our bit to reduce the environmental impact of our journeys through carbon offsetting, ultimately there are only two real solutions: clean fuel technologies, which don’t look like happening anytime soon, or reduce the number of flights taken – whether that’s through personal choice or governmental actions such as raising taxes and levies on flying to make it more expensive.

If costs rise though then the distances involved in moving abroad might start to look that bit greater once again, and bridging the separation from friends and family by shuttling back and forth increasingly difficult.

* Directgov, http://www.direct.gov.uk/en/Environmentandgreenerliving/Greenertravel/DG_064429
** Go-ahead for new Heathrow runway, BBC News, 15 January 2009, http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/politics/7829676.stm

Paul Allen is a freelance journalist and writer who has lived in northern Spain since 2003. He is the author of “Should I Stay Or Should I Go? The Truth About Moving Abroad And Whether It’s Right For You,” a comprehensive e-book guide for people seeking advice on whether or not to move abroad. For more details about the book, and to get lots of free information and advice on moving and living overseas, visit his website at http://www.expatliving101.com/

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