Ryanair has lowest CO2 emissions among world's biggest airlines
Ryanair – Europe's biggest airline and one of the world's largest – was found by Cirium to emit 63 grammes of CO2 per available seat kilometre during 2024. That was down 1.9pc compared to 2023.
Number two on the list of the world's largest airlines was US low-cost carrier Southwest, at 68.9 grammes per available seat kilometre.
An available seat kilometre (ASK) is a standard unit of measure within the aviation sector for the total amount of capacity an airline has on offer.
Delta was third, with 74.4 grammes per ASK.
Cirium said that Ryanair, whose group chief executive is Michael O'Leary, emitted a total of 13.7m tonnes of CO2 last year.
Ryanair aims to reduce its CO2 emissions per passenger by 27pc to about 50 grammes by 2031.
Based on all the world's major airlines, Ryanair ranked number 20 in the Cirium report, however, with Southwest, Delta and other large global carriers such as Emirates, Qatar Airways and America Airlines not even making the league table.
Hungary-based Wizz Air, whose CEO is Jozsef Varadi, topped the overall rankings, emitting 53.9 grammes of CO2 per available seat kilometre last year.
US carrier Frontier Airlines was second, with 54.4, while Turkey's Pegasus was third, with 57.1.
Member airlines of the International Air Transport Association (IATA), whose director general is Willie Walsh, have pledged to have net zero carbon emissions by 2050.
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One of the ways in which it's intended that will be achieved is through the use of sustainable aviation fuel.
The transition to sustainable aviation fuel will cost as much as $4.7tn (€4trn), with just 0.7pc of airlines' fuel requirements will be sourced from green fuel this year, according to IATA.
About two million tonnes of SAF will be produced this year, double the amount in 2024. But total jet fuel consumption will hit 311 million tonnes in 2025.
The EU's RefuelEU initiative programme obligates fuel suppliers to blend 2pc SAF into aviation fuel available at all EU airports, with the figure rising to 6pc by 2030 and 70pc by 2050.
However, SAF production has not been stimulated sufficiently to meet current and forecast demand.
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