The oneworld Alliance is teaming up with the International Air Transport Association (IATA) to calculate emissions and inform travelers of their carbon footprint. All 13 airlines participating in the alliance will reportedly contribute operational data to IATA’s CO2 Connect emissions calculator to determine the calculations.
Aiming to use airline data, including fuel burn, and belly cargo and load factors, IATA launched the calculator in 2022. With other industry and open market data sources, the tool can calculate emissions for more than 70 aircraft types.
Improving “quality and accuracy”
IATA said last month that it expects that oneworld’s collaboration will “further improve the quality and accuracy” of the emissions calculator “as the percentage of airline-specific fuel burn data used by the calculator will substantially increase.” The airlines part of the world alliance include Alaska Airlines, American Airlines, British Airways, Cathay Pacific, Finnair, Iberia, Japan Airlines, Malaysia Airlines, Qatar Airways, Qantas, Royal Air Maroc, Royal Jordanian, and Sri Lankan Airlines.
Marie Owens Thomsen, IATA’s Senior Vice President of Sustainability and Chief Economist, commented on the new initiative.
“Travelers want to make informed choices regarding their CO2 footprint and IATA CO2 Connect set out to provide CO2 emission calculations based on operational data. We are delighted that oneworld will become the first airline alliance to join this initiative, bringing in its 13 member airlines as data contributors. Their decision underscores the importance of the industry’s objective of providing consistency and alignment in this field.”
Calculating nearly 100% of global air travel
CO2 Connect was launched in June 2022 to provide high-quality calculations of passenger carbon emissions. Using a plethora of sources, the tool determines the appropriate emissions output for 74 aircraft types, which represent 98% of the active passenger fleet worldwide. The calculator also reportedly considers traffic data from 881 aircraft operators, accounting for 93% of global air travel.
“oneworld is proud to be the first global airline alliance to support IATA’s work to provide customers with high-quality estimates of the CO2 emissions of their flights,” said Grace Cheung, the alliance’s Environmental and Sustainability Board Chair. “Our collaboration with IATA on CO2 Connect will in turn help key players across the aviation sector, including airlines, aircraft manufacturers and travel management companies among others, to make better and more informed choices for travelers and enhanced ESG reporting”…
