Taking off, or coming into land

The outlook for European aviation emissions

“Its the not the Destination, It's the journey.”

― Ralph Waldo Emerson

Aviation was one of only two non-power generation sectors (the other being oil & gas) covered by the EU ETS that saw an increase in emissions between 2021 and 2022. European aviation emissions covered by the EU ETS increased by 85.2% to 50 Mt CO2, according to estimates by Refinitiv.

You can start to see why emissions have jumped so much by looking at this chart which shows how airline travel (by major route and region) has recovered from the pandemic. Revenue Passenger Kilometres (RPK) is a measure of passenger airline travel and is calculated as the number of paying passengers multiplied by the total distance travelled. The key data to look out for in terms of EU ETS covered emissions is ‘Within Europe’. In line with most other major airline routes, domestic European airline travel has recovered strongly, but still remains around 10% below 2019 levels.