Now is the time to change Europe’s aviation route charge approach and save emissions

The past year has seen many announcements and commitments by all parts of the aviation industry towards net zero. There have been at least three industry-led or sponsored roadmaps and each pointed towards a net-zero trajectory by mid-century. Every tonne of CO2 counts, so what could we begin doing tomorrow and build momentum towards delivering that ambition? The European aviation industry’s recent Destination 2050 net-zero roadmap gave some examples and one in particular, relating to route charges and flight planning, has implications that won’t be universally popular among airlines and air navigation service providers, writes Dr Jarlath Molloy. Nevertheless, industry stakeholders could, and arguably should, incentivise flying the minimum fuel route rather than the minimum cost route, to reduce aviation CO2 emissions by up to 1.5%. It is a small step towards the net zero goal, but we can’t wait for new aviation fuels and fleet to magically solve the climate emergency in 20 or 30 years’ time while other parts of our economies are prioritising their environmental performance today. [...]