Should the airline industry be looking at sustainability more holistically?

The airline industry has long discussed sustainability efforts related to emissions.

Earlier this year Google updated its Travel Impact Model, which launched in 2022 to determine flight emissions. Last year, American Express Global Business Travel partnered with Chooose to integrate carbon emissions calculations as part of its reporting and booking tools last year. Their partnership came days after Chooose landed a $15 million investment for expansion. And in 2022, Travalyst made public its aviation sustainability framework for flight emissions data collection and display. All come in the years following International Air Transport Association’s 2021 pledge to reach net-zero by 2050 in support of the Paris Agreement.

But should the aviation industry be looking at sustainability efforts on a more holistic basis, to provide a more meaningful measure of progress toward net-zero? Some industry voices think so.

The Q2 2024 Net-Zero Airline Ranking Results, created by Sustainable Aero Lab in partnership with Research + Attitude, shows the industry isn’t on track to its goals. Rather than focusing on emissions, the assessment is based on a variety of measures in an attempt to grade airlines on their “commitment” to achieving net-zero.

“There is significant uncertainty in the public debate about whether airlines are genuinely investing in the innovations needed for a net-zero aviation future,” the ranking’s introduction reads.

The new analysis, which is meant to be a fuller look at sustainability efforts, may be useful given that air travel is generally said to account for less than 3% of CO2 emissions globally – though that statistic could rise according to recent analysis from the same duo.

What makes this analysis different?

While it’s become standard to reference emissions as a metric for sustainability progress, the Net-Zero Airline Ranking goes further.

“The reason we took everything together, brought everything together, was to give more transparency on what sustainability is in an airline context,” said Lukas Kaestner, co-founder and chief operations officer of Sustainable Aero Lab, a platform that seeks to make climate-neutral aviation a reality.

The report looks at the 20 largest airlines’ (based on total revenue) commitment to reaching a net-zero future.

Lennart Dobravsky, founder at Research + Attitude who helped develop the report with Sustainable Aero Lab, elaborated in a LinkedIn post sharing the study that was published last week. “This analysis is unique because we go beyond the usual metrics, such as CO2 emissions per passenger-kilometer, when assessing the airline industry’s sustainability progress.”

Kaestner added, “There is no ranking out there, or no go-to point at the moment, until we publish[ed] this, where you could collect this for the largest airlines in the world, at least. So this is why we said it’s important to have this kind of transparency, also to steer the discussion, also to allow questions and debates around this topic. What are the right parameters? Do we need to develop them further?”

Awareness on the issue, Kaestner believes, has been lacking. Instead of a broader picture on sustainability, he said there has been a concentration on press releases and a narrative presented by airlines themselves. That’s meant there isn’t a great way to put their sustainability efforts and statements into perspective.

So, Research + Attitude and Sustainable Aero Labs set out to change that. Plus, the duo wants to flag how far the industry still has to go to fulfill its goals.

The ranking’s Q2 2024 release focuses on five metrics, evaluating the commitment of each included airline. It’s meant to prioritize “genuine action” over “superficial promises.” Each metric is meant to be relevant to how the industry can drive toward a sustainable future.

What does the report reveal?

At top level, the report found that the industry’s 20 largest airlines aren’t doing enough in terms of net-zero efforts. The report analyzed fleet age, sustainable aviation fuel share, SAF offtakes, climate fund and green investments.

“We do not see any major airline yet who is committed across all the five dimensions we’ve put up,” said Dobravsky.

That means the airlines haven’t invested enough in sustainable aviation fuel. Airlines haven’t committed to sustainable fuel offtake agreements to secure supply in the future. Airlines haven’t invested enough in sustainable aviation startups. And airlines haven’t put enough money toward respective climate funds.

Eighteen out of 20 airlines analyzed were scored under 33% on the report’s determined “full-scale net zero commitment strategy” scale.

Overall, the study found a lack of comprehensive strategies, noting “no airline” is strongly committed across the metrics. It also saw that while net-zero sustainability efforts have been publicly praised by airlines, there’s a chasm between rhetoric and reality – it’s mostly marketing. And there’s a threat not only to the climate but also to the air industry’s “social license” to function in the coming decades.

Despite the negative results, Dobravsky noted a couple standouts from the airline pack.

“We also want to praise those airlines who have committed more,” he said, pointing to United Airlines and KLM Air in France – both of which had different approaches than their peers, he said.

And Dobravsky cautioned against making judgments based off the nascent report.

“We want to initiate discussions on how to best measure this going forward,” he said. “Because, of course, the approach we chose is not without its caveats and flaws, right? It’s something we want to publish in order to hopefully also convince others, especially the established aviation industry stakeholders.”

The team also plans to add more net-zero commitment analysis measures in the future.

Can the industry make progress on sustainability?

The results show a need for more comprehensive strategies in the industry, according to the report — and an obligation to “move beyond superficial PR commitments” to make investments in impactful changes.

It’s not a technological question to me at all. It’s a question of willingness, if we are willing to put a foot down and forward, that we will be able to manage. And the question is: Will we be able to achieve the willingness?

Lukas Kaestner, Sustainable Aero Lab

“It’s based on fact [that] the industry has no path [to] zero, right, at least based on existing technologies,” said Dobrovsky.

Fundamentally, he said, the industry is at a point where it needs to solve a technology challenge — that can be solved if investments into radical efficiency are made. “The index we built is definitely skewed or biased towards radical innovation, such as money being put aside as part of climate funds, money being invested into startups.” 

The need becomes to incentivize airlines to invest in these technologies.

While that all may sound daunting, the report showed that airlines can improve their positions with “relatively small efforts” — modest investments in sustainability, for example, could lead to marked improvements when compared with peer airlines.

Kaestner and Dobrovsky believe the needle can be moved on sustainability in the next five years.

“I think we can,” said Kaestner. “It’s not a technological question to me at all. It’s a question of willingness, if we are willing to put a foot down and forward, that we will be able to manage. And the question is: Will we be able to achieve the willingness?”

Dobrovsky added that there’s also the willingness to communicate openly about sustainability – where the industry stands and where it wants to go – that needs to change.

“Our hope … is that the industry starts committing to accepting where we stand in the net-zero challenge, and once we are willing to provide the numbers, we are then able to call out the problem transparently and clearly, which is, I think, the basic need in order to then commit to investments and real action over words.”