The European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) and EUROCONTROL have worked together to validate a methodology of calculating gate-to-gate CO2 emissions, based on actual fuel burn, that will provide a basis for monitoring progress in reducing emissions to make aviation more sustainable.
EUROCONTROL, with the support of its independent Performance Review Commission (PRC), had developed a methodology to compute CO2 emissions from a gate-to-gate perspective, based on radar and aircraft performance data and computed flight by flight. The results since 2019 are available on the EUROCONTROL Aviation Intelligence Unit (AIU) Gate-to-Gate dashboard, providing interested stakeholders key information, including a breakdown per flight phase.
EUROCONTROL teamed up with EASA to be able to leverage actual flight data information to refine and calibrate this gate-to-gate CO2emissions estimation capability.
The outcomes are published in a joint report that provides an understanding of the agreed methodology. It also details the validation exercise that was carried out in cooperation with EASA and with the contribution of Spain’s Vueling airline, leveraging the capabilities of EASA’s “big data” Data4Safety Digital Platform. The exercise confirms the method’s strong overall accuracy and identifies specific areas for further fine-tuning.
The cooperation between the two organisations is governed by Memorandum of Cooperation (MoC) established in April 2021, and updated in April 2024, that affirmed and strengthened the increasing cooperation between the two Agencies.
