Qantas lands mid-pack on carbon emissions

A world-first report has ranked the green credentials of 52 airlines, including Qantas, to help travellers fly sustainably.

Wizz Air has been ranked the world’s greenest airline based on its carbon emissions per million passenger kilometres. Picture: Nicolas Economou / Nurphoto / Zuma Press

Qantas has landed safely in the middle of the first analysis of international airlines’ green credentials designed to meet growing demand for more sustainable air travel.

Prepared by the CAPA Centre for Aviation in partnership with Envest Global, the Airline Sustainability Benchmarking Report assessed 52 airlines on the basis of emissions, fleet age, fuel burn, load factors and carbon offset schemes.

The best performer with just under 60 tonnes of carbon emissions per million passenger kilometres was Hungarian-based ultra low cost carrier Wizz Air, followed by Chinese carrier Juneyao on 65 tonnes.

At the other end of the scale, Croatia Airlines was the biggest emitter of carbon per million passenger kilometres with over 120 tonnes, ahead of Turkish Airlines on 115 tonnes. Qantas landed in 21st place, ­recording an average 85 tonnes of carbon dioxide for every million passenger kilometres, ­behind Air New Zealand but ahead of Emirates.

CAPA Centre for Aviation emeritus chairman Peter Harbison said many other factors could be taken into consideration when measuring sustainability, such as routes, seating configurations, weather conditions and airport delays. But as yet there was no ­established formula for assessing an airline’s sustainability, and many carriers were using that to their advantage.

“There’s a lot of greenwashing going on, it’s totally non-transparent,” Mr Harbison said. “There’s no standard to reporting and that’s really the thing we’re trying to address with this report. It’s impossible to say the industry is reducing emissions or which airline is reducing emissions because nobody knows how they’re being counted or if they’re being ­counted at all.”

What was clear was the growing demand from governments and corporations for such information as they strived to meet their own emissions-reduction targets.

The report listed numerous global entities that have publicly committed to slashing emissions, with many targeting reductions in travel to help achieve their goal.

PwC aimed to halve emissions associated with business travel and accommodation within a decade, while EY was targeting a 35 per cent reduction.

Mr Harbison said that would likely mean less business travel, which would increase pressure on airlines already struggling post-Covid. “It’s going to be very difficult for the next five years or so. Those long-haul, widebody aircraft really do need people travelling on business,” he said.

Collectively, airlines have set a target of 2050 to achieve net-zero emissions with the help of biofuels and hydrogen or electric-powered aircraft.

The report notes that one of the most effective ways for airlines to reduce emissions is to lower the average fleet age by replacing older aircraft with modern, more fuel efficient planes. Even a one-year reduction in the global fleet age could result in a reduction in carbon emissions of 30 million to 40 million tonnes, the report says.

At 12½ years, Qantas’s average fleet age was one of the top 12 highest of the airlines examined, with Air Canada the worst, on 18 years. Norwegian Air, Silk Air and Wizz had the youngest fleets, at less than five years.

Only 14 of the 52 airlines provided data about carbon offset programs, showing Delta was a long way ahead of the pack, neutralising close to 13 million tonnes in 2020. Qantas’ scheme, often described by the airline as world-leading, managed to offset 231,404 tonnes of carbon in the last year.

Mr Harbison said there was no question airlines faced a tough road as they emerged from the pandemic to a world where the tolerance for carbon emissions was plunging.

Originally published as Qantas lands mid-pack on carbon emissions