By using the services of Climate Austria our passengers can neutralise the volume of CO2 produced by their flight (calculated per person) on the Austrian booking homepage! With Climate Austria, a dedicated Austrian offer for CO2 offsetting is available since 2008.
Compensate CO2-Emissions with Climate Austria
Austrian Airlines supports the Austrian climate protection initiative, ‘Climate Austria’. This initiative enables our passengers to compensate for the CO2 emissions produced by their flight at the same time as paying for their ticket. Whenever a passenger purchases a ticket at the Austrian website, the CO2 emissions of the flight in the question and financial contribution needed to compensate for these are calculated automatically. Austrian Airlines and Kommunalkredit Public Consulting (KPC) have developed their own CO2 calculator to enable them to do this. The calculations are based on our current kerosene consumption figures and the average load factors of our destinations. Climate Austria supports national and international climate protection projects for CO2 reduction. Our passengers can also make a financial contribution towards doing this, and thereby compensate for the share of CO2 produced by their flight. Contributions towards CO2 compensation by passengers are on a voluntary basis, of course. National climate protection projects meet the standards of domestic environmental support set by the Austrian Environment Ministry. International climate protection projects are subject to UN-approved Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) standards, and contribute to long-term development in developing countries.
If you would like to read more about Climate Austria, visit their website.
Saving Fuel
Austrian Airlines has reduced its CO2 emissions for years, especially by the use of fuel saving programmes. Fuel consumption is the most important environmental aspect in aviation. Efforts are being made to keep fuel consumption as low as possible in the aviation industry. This reduces emissions and fuel cost.
Austrian Airlines minimises its fuel use primarily through technical measures, operational activities and flight route optimisations. We can additionally reduce unavoidable emissions with the aid of financial measures.
Effective technical measures taken in recent years have been to attach ‘winglets’ to the wing tips of Boeing B737 and B767 aircraft, and a weight reduction in the aircrafts. In coming years, we expect to accomplish fuel savings basically due to the use of lighter aircraft construction materials and more efficient engines.
Together with the airports and Austro Control, Austrian is improving flight movements and ground operations. We are conducting new approach flight procedures minimising noise and emissions levels, i.g. the Continuous Descent Approach.
Specific fuel consumption and emissions
In relation to transport service (unit of measurement: 100 passenger kilometres), we have achieved cuts in fuel consumption similar to the most economical motor vehicles. We are confident that the use of new technologies and advanced operational procedures will enable us to achieve further savings.
Emissions trading system
From 2012 onwards aviation will be included into the European Emissions Trading System (ETS). Effective from then Austrian Airlines will have to submit emission allowances for all the CO2-Emissions produced by them. The ETS will be applied to all flights within, to and from the EU. To avoid competitive disadvantages for European Airlines, a global ETS is the only possible alternative. The ETS will require an enormous amount of surveillance from the airlines. The monitoring of the ton kilometres’ and CO2 emissions is in progress since January 2010.