Environmental Labelling Scheme for Aviation

Informing passengers of the environmental impact of their flight options is key in reinforcing the efforts of the aviation industry to decarbonise. To enable environmental transparency in aviation, EASA has been working very closely with stakeholders in establishing an environmental labelling scheme for aviation. The European Union’s Sustainable and Smart Mobility Strategy foresees an aviation labelling scheme that will provide information to the passengers regarding different environmental aspects of their flights.

The main objective of the labelling scheme is to enable passengers to make sustainable choices when booking their flights. Leveraging EASA’s expertise, it is an end-to-end approach taking into account all aspects of the aviation system.

How will it work?

The scheme is designed to provide emissions values to European passengers when booking their flights. In this way it enables passengers to identify flights with lower emissions, considering also that sustainable aviation fuels (SAF) are taken into account in the values shown. It is anticipated that passengers will be seamlessly provided with emission values during the flight booking process. In this way, transparency in terms of the environmental impacts of aviation will be achieved which in turn incentivises cross sector improvements in operations including fuel and technology. 

The system has been designed and developed with the involvement of relevant industry stakeholders and is currently being tested with a selected number of European airlines and global online travel platforms.

The case for an environmental label in aviation

European citizens not only want to learn more about the effect their travel might have on the environment, they also want to be in a position to make a choice and therefore be empowered to make a difference.

EASA initiated a survey in 2019 with feedback received up until 2020. Responses from over 9,500 participants from 18 European Countries gave some clear pointers.
The overarching response:
 

Only 5% are aware of how much CO2 they use when they travel by air.

80% would like to get environmental information for flights they take.

3 out of 4 would welcome an Environmental Label.

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