How can a connecting flight be more sustainable than a direct flight?
By: This Is Mert
Tags: Airlines, Turkish Airlines, Carbon Emissions, Google Flights, Sustainability

Today I will mention some criteria which effects airlines carbon emissions score. After leaving behind my 4th year in the airline industry as a Global Corporate Account Manager (Say hi to me), I decided to share what I learned. Let’s get the ball rolling !

Returning to the question in the title, let me explain in which cases this condition can be met. In the example below, taken from Google Flights, we will see the carbon emission ranking among airlines for the flight from London to Tel Aviv. We filter out two airlines. We could choose other airlines, it doesn’t matter. We will only explore the possible reasons behind these scores.

GOOGLE FLIGHTS

As you may see, British Airways is flying direct and carbon emission is 544 kg for economy class one way. On the other hand, Turkish Airlines has a connected flight via Istanbul. Its carbon emission is 500 kg even if during transfer, plane will land, taxi and departure again.

From my point of view this comparison is really interesting fact :)

At first I thought there was an error in the calculation. After researching the reasons, I saw that it might make sense and I wanted to share it with you.

Criteria 1 → Average Fleet Age

Air travel produces millions of metric tons of carbon dioxide each year. New technologies could help airlines reduce their emissions and meet their sustainability goals. Next-generation aircrafts allow airlines to decrease their fuel consumption by %20.

Turkish Airlines’ average fleet age is just 7.5 years old and they have the youngest fleet in Europe ! (Fleet data from ch-aviation.com)

Air France — 14.5 years old.

Alitalia — 15 years old.

Iberia — 9.1 years old.

Lufthansa — 11.5 years old.

British Airways — 12.9 years old.*

Criteria 2 → Customer Segments

Although Turkish Airlines has only Economy and Business Class, British Airways has Economy , Premium Economy and Business Class for flight from LHR — TLV. On average, 1 premium economy seat occupy a place as much space as 2 economy class seats on an airplane. Thus, fewer people are able to travel, which lowers the sustainability score.

I guess I don’t need to talk about first class in terms of sustainability effects. British Airways has 8 seats first class on many wide-body flights. The less privileged upper segment seats are, the less carbon emission will be.

Criteria 3 → Size of Aircraft

If we go back to our example, British Airways operates these flights (LHR-TLV) on the B787 and B777. Since the B787 is a newer aircraft, carbon emissions are less. On the other side Turkish Airlines prefers to fly with Airbus A321, which is a narrow body aircraft, on one leg of its flights. Therefore, carbon emission score is less. One might assume that the larger the plane, the more fuel-efficient it is per passenger due to economies of scale. Size matters, but not in the way you think.

After 14 years flying in the skies, Airbus closed its A380 gigantic aircraft production. Although there are many reasons behind it, we will focus on its size. It was almost impossible to load the Airbus A380 on any route, even the most popular ones. As the size of the aircraft increases not only A380, it becomes more difficult to fill both passengers and cargo. Every flight with less than 60% load factor causes more damage to sustainability than other narrow-body aircraft.

The usage of sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) and hybrid-electric aircrafts will take the sustainability race to the next level.

BONUS: Silence is a true wisdom !

New aircrafts come with a quiet flight experience. Imagine not experiencing headaches and minimizing the possibility of jetlag! Here is the noise footprint(Please click) example: