The most polluting UK airlines have been named and shamed as global-heating fuelling aviation emissions continue to soar post pandemic, with the likes of Ryanair, British Airways and easyJet featuring on the list.
Popular budget airlines have been ranked among the top offenders in a run down of the biggest polluting aviation firms based on European bound flights leaving the UK, put together by Transport & Environment.
After global commercial flight figures and associated emissions dropped dramatically to less than 17million in 2020 during the coronavirus pandemic from almost 39million the year before, they look on track to bounce back to new highs of 40million this year, according to Statistica.
As great as that may be for airlines' balance sheets, holidaymakers and businesses which rely on air travel, it's bad news for the environment. Flying is one of if not the most polluting form of transport, producing at least five times more emissions per passenger than rail, according to a conservative estimate from the European Environment Agency.
Aviation emissions are on track to return to pre-pandemic levels. Many budget airlines are now emitting more than they ever have, with three in particular dumping far more global-heating causing gases into the atmosphere, according to analysis of European aviation emissions by Transport & Environment.
Ryanair is not only Europe's biggest commercial aviation polluter, its emissions have shot up 23% since 2019. Only Wizz Air has seen a bigger jump with its 39% bump over the same time period. United Airlines emissions rose a slightly more modest 20%.
Although the biggest budget airlines emit the most overall emissions, per passenger they tend to have better pollution figures than the more luxury firms. Packing many people onto an economy aircraft is greener on a per passenger sense than a few people flying first class.
Ryanair's spokespeople regularly argue that it is one of the world's greenest airline based on per passenger figures, despite being responsible for huge amounts of greenhouse gasses being releases. “This report from the EU Emissions Trading System does not include Ryanair’s overall CO2 emissions which are significantly lower other European airlines, despite Ryanair carrying more passengers than any other major airline in Europe," a spokesperson for the company said.
"Last year Ryanair traffic grew by approximately 10% (2023 v 2022) with our ETS emissions growing in line with that. This growth was enabled by the latest technology aircraft which helped improve our carbon intensity to 65g CO2 per passenger/km (lower than 2022 levels and far below that of other carriers)."
Ryanair says it is committed to reaching net zero emissions by 2050 and is heading towards this by buying aircraft which produce less emissions.
A British Airways spokesperson said: "As this report rightly recognises, British Airways’ emission levels are below where they were in 2019. We are proud of the 10 per cent reduction in our carbon intensity we’ve delivered since 2019, driven by our BA Better World Sustainability Strategy, and are working hard towards our target of net zero by 2050, or sooner.
"That plan includes a combination of aircraft and operational efficiencies, as well as investment in Sustainable Aviation Fuel (the industry-recognised term), new low-carbon aircraft technology and high-quality, verified carbon removals."
An easyJet spokesperson said: "We remain absolutely committed to decarbonising our operations and have a net zero roadmap in place to help us achieve this as well as an SBTi-validated 'interim' carbon target of 35% intensity reduction by 2035. We recorded our biggest carbon intensity reduction on record in 2023, which we achieved through a combination of fleet renewal and operational efficiencies – including the use of state-of-the-art technology such as Descent Profile Optimisation software, which we estimate is helping us reduce over 88,000 tonnes of Co2 from our operation every year.
"These measures are helping to make our operations more efficient in the short term but we recognise there is more to do in the longer term. This is why we are also investing multi-millions of pounds in the development of zero emission aircraft technology and are committed to using it as soon as it becomes commercially and operationally viable."
Europe's most polluting airlines
(Airline, emissions in megatonnes in 2023, percentage change compared to 2019)
- Ryanair: 14.9, 23% up
- Lufthansa: 9.5, 26% down
- British Airways: 8.7, 18.7% down
- Air France: 8.2, 14.5% down
- EasyJet: 6.9, 13% down
- KLM: 5.4, 18% down
- Emirates: 5.3, 10% down
- Wizz Air: 4.5, 39% up
- Iberia: 3.6, 8% down
- United Airlines: 3.6, 20%
The other airlines listed in the rankings have also been contacted for comment.
In 2023, more than 6.7 million flights departed from European airports, emitting a total of 164.85 megatonnes of CO2 - the same emissions as 80 million petrol cars in one year. That is 11% more flights number wise than 2022 and 13% more emissions.
While environmental campaigners have long argued that governments must make steps to cut flight numbers and emissions, few have done so. France was a trailblazer when it banned many domestic flights last spring, and stands in contrast to the UK, where domestic aviation tax was halved by Rishi Sunak in a move designed to get more aircraft flying.
According to Transport & Environment, the UK is fast-approaching pre-pandemic levels of flying as 2023 saw 88% of 2019 flight numbers, and 89% of its CO2 emissions. This is concerning as the Government, via the Jet Zero Strategy, committed to never crossing 2019 pollution levels again.
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