by Mia Taylor
Last updated: 2:50 PM ET, Wed December 20, 2023
Oneworld Alliance has agreed to join the International Air Transport Association’s (IATA) efforts to calculate aviation industry CO2 emissions, a move that may help improve the quality and accuracy of IATA's calculations.
As part of the new agreement all 13 oneworld member airlines are committing to contributing operational data to IATA’s emissions calculator—known as CO2 Connect. Oneworld is the first airline alliance to join this initiative.
As a result of the new partnership, the percentage of airline-specific fuel burn data used by the calculator will be substantially increased, IATA said in a statement.
Emissions data for the CO2 Connect calculator will be provided by oneworld alliance partners Alaska Airlines, American Airlines, British Airways, Cathay Pacific, Finnair, Iberia, Japan Airlines, Malaysia Airlines, Qatar Airways, Qantas, Royal Air Maroc, Royal Jordanian, and SriLankan Airlines.
“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,” IATA Senior Vice President, Sustainability and Chief Economist, Marie Owens Thomsen said in a statement.
Alaska Airlines' oneworld alliance livery. (photo courtesy of Alaska Airlines)
IATA launched CO2 Connect in June 2022, with the goal of using member airline data, such as fuel burn, belly cargo and load factors, to provide high-quality per flight passenger CO2 emission calculations.
Paired with other IATA and open market data sources, IATA CO2 Connect calculates CO2 emissions for 74 aircraft types, representing about 98 percent of the active global passenger fleet,. The calculator considers traffic data from 881 aircraft operators representing about 93 percent 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,” Oneworld Environmental and Sustainability Board Chair and General Manager Sustainability, Cathay Pacific, Grace Cheung said in statement. “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.”
IATA CO2 Connect data calculations are available to industry partners through an API or flat file, as well as via airline sales channels and travel management companies.
In a recent traveler opinion and priority poll, 90 percent of travelers stated that they have a responsibility to know about the carbon emissions of their flight, but only two in five actually do so.
And while 84 percent of those surveyed acknowledged that it is easy to find tools to accurately estimate their carbon emissions, the vast majority (90 percent) expect airlines or travel agents to provide them with this information, indicating a reliance on the industry to proactively inform passengers about the carbon impact of their flights.
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