Revealed: the world’s greenest – and least green – airlines

A STUDY by Warwick Business School in England has revealed the world’s most and least polluting airlines. 

The research, which monitored airlines’ carbon emissions over a seven-year period, found that Finnair was the world’s greenest carrier, followed by TAP Portugal and Virgin Australia. At the opposite end of the scale, three major US carriers – American Airlines, Delta Air Lines and United Airlines – were found to be the most polluting.

Dr Frederik Dahlmann of Warwick Business School, explained: ‘Finnair perform best due to the age and type of its planes, the routes it flies, and the overall number of connections it offers. Plus it is probably among the most advanced when it comes to accounting for and managing its emissions over time.’

But one issue of concern highlighted by the report is the fact that most airlines’ CO2 emissions do not appear to be declining despite the many steps being introduced by the industry to reduce its environmental footprint. In many cases they are increasing.

‘The data demonstrates that, for most airlines, emissions are either growing or stagnant; none are showing a significant reduction in CO2 emissions,’ said Dr Dahlmann. ‘This is despite many airlines introducing modern and more efficient planes to their fleet. The increasing number of flights, which is set to double by 2030, means cutting emissions is a real problem.’

The report did acknowledge that releasing data about carbon emissions is ‘entirely voluntary’, which was why the study was able to collect data from only 20 major airlines.

‘We need more airlines to publicly account for their emissions so that passengers can take emissions into consideration when arranging their travel plans,’ Dr Dahlmann said. But he added that while the data is incomplete, the information obtained demonstrates that the airline industry faces a ‘huge challenge… to meet its CO2 targets’, and ‘shows how much needs to be done to meet the new targets set by the industry bodies’.

The aviation industry currently produces around 2% of the world’s human-induced CO2 emissions, and this figure is predicted to grow to about 3% in 2050 if no action is taken.

Top 5 greenest

1. Finnair
2. TAP Portugal
3. Virgin Australia
4. SAS
5) easyJet

Least greenest 5 

16) Air France KLM
17) Lufthansa
18) United Airlines
19) Delta
20) American 

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