Enabling aviation decarbonisation

The EU Flight Emissions Label (FEL) will empower air travel passengers to make informed decisions by providing clear information about their carbon emissions. It relies on real data from past performance to label a comparable flight in the future.

Its aim is to serve as a transparent tool that educates about the direct impacts of travel purchase decisions on global warming.

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Why is the label powerful?

Ensuring that passengers are well-informed about the environmental impact of different flight options is a crucial tool in empowering them to make more sustainable choices. Transparency is vital in this process, and to achieve this, the European Commission together with the European Union Aviation Safety Agency(EASA) has created this platform as part of the EU Flight Emissions Label for aviation. 

When booking flights, passengers will be able to see standardised information on the greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions of label holder airline flights derived from data on actual performance. 


This initiative is the first of its kind worldwide, placing passengers at its core.


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Why communicate flight emissions and how does EASA do it?

The Flight Emissions Label is a European Union initiative which aims to provide passengers with trustworthy and standardised information about greenhouse gas emissions based on real performance, considering factors like aircraft type, average passenger numbers and freight volume on board, as well as aviation fuel used.


EASA initiated a survey in 2019 with feedback received up until 2020. Responses from over 9,500 participants from 18 European Countries gave some clear indications of the need for a label. While 80% of air passengers claim they would like to know the amount of greenhouse gas produced by the flights they take, only 5% of passengers declare having access to such information.

What does this mean for me as a passenger?

  1. Select flights based on real-world contributions to global warming
  2. Passengers will have access to a clear and standardised data comparison view on carbon emissions for each flight, enabling them to choose options with the lowest environmental impact.

Understand the factors that contribute to a flight's strong emissions performance

The Flight Emissions Label is a European Union initiative which aims to provide passengers with trustworthy and standardised information about greenhouse gas emissions based on real performance, considering factors like aircraft type, average passenger numbers and freight volume on board, as well as aviation fuel used.


EASA initiated a survey in 2019 with feedback received up until 2020. Responses from over 9,500 participants from 18 European Countries gave some clear indications of the need for a label. While 80% of air passengers claim they would like to know the amount of greenhouse gas produced by the flights they take, only 5% of passengers declare having access to such information.

How can ticket choices reduce a passenger footprint?

We can demonstrate how a passenger can reduce a carbon footprint of a flight ticket using the test versions of the flight emissions label using representative data. The below are examples only and do not reflect a specific airline and results from real observations may differ.


Short-haul flights


A passenger flying economy short haul (1400 km) would produce a footprint of approximately 150kg of CO2eq. Selecting an alternative ticket may reduce the emissions in the following ways:

  • Selecting a flight with a newer generation aircraft providing better fuel consumption may reduce emissions by 20%, reducing the passenger footprint by 30 kg of CO2eq.

  • A newer aircraft flight using 5% of lower carbon fuels (75% lifecycle carbon reduction) could save another 4kg of CO2eq or more for the passenger.

  • A flight may be more full than others on average to reduce the per passenger footprint by sharing the total flight GHG emissions between more passengers and cargo. An additional 10 people on board the same aircraft may reduce a passenger footprint by 6%, or over 8kg of CO2eq.

  • If the original selected short-haul flight was in Business Class, changing class down to economy may reduce the carbon footprint by over 30% (75kg of CO2eq), depending on the aircraft configuration.

Long-haul flights


A passenger flying economy long haul (6,000 km each way) would produce a footprint of approximately 560kg of CO2eq. Selecting an alternative ticket may reduce the emissions in the following ways:

  • Selecting a flight with a newer generation aircraft providing better fuel consumption may reduce emissions 12.5%, reducing the passenger footprint by 70 kg of CO2eq.

  • A newer aircraft flight using 5% of lower carbon fuels (75% lifecycle carbon reduction) could save another 18kg of CO2eq or more for the passenger.

  • A flight may be more full than others on average to reduce the per passenger footprint by sharing the total flight GHG emissions between more passengers and cargo. An additional 10 people and half a ton of cargo on board the same aircraft may reduce a passenger footprint by 6%, or nearly 34kg of CO2eq.

  • If the original selected long-haul flight was in Business Class, changing down to economy may reduce the carbon footprint by over 70%  depending on the aircraft configuration.

A flight emissions label can display how customer selection with the same airline, route and class can select flights with as much as 25% or more lower emissions, with larger savings available by changing class.

How does this compare to other ways a consumer can decarbonise?

In the same way as the energy label helps consumers to reduce the global warming impact of household energy, the flight emissions label enables a passenger to reduce the global warming impact of aviation.


The annual average personal footprint in the EU is 7,5 tonnes of CO2eq and the EU energy label exists to help consumers make decisions regarding household appliances. In 2020, EU households consumed 62% less power than in 1992, when the energy label was introduced.


The EU energy label allows consumers to make purchase decisions between more or less efficient technologies. An example would be a refrigerator rated A and another rated F may have a difference of 200kWh/annum - equivalent to an annual saving of 40 kg to 60 kg of CO2eq.


This means selecting one flight of the same class and destination with a newer aircraft alone may save as much CO2eq each year as purchasing a best-in-class refrigerator instead of one with a lower energy label rating.

  1. Scale of energy efficiency classes from A to G.
  2. The energy efficiency class of this product.
  3. Annual energy consumption in kWh.
  4. The sum of the volumes of the frozen compartment(s) in litres. 
  5. The sum of the volumes of the chill compartment(s) and unfrozen compartment(s) in litres. 
  6. Airborne acoustical noise emissions and class. In this case this is a B class.

How are the flight emissions labels displayed?

Data from the Flight Emissions Label will be available on an increasing number of platforms - from airline booking websites to online travel agents. Information such as carbon footprint is becoming the norm in the air transport industry customer experience.

Integrating the Flight Emissions Label provides an additional service - that of estimating impacts - which is increasingly considered and expected by the passengers in Europe. It is meant to lend additional credibility to the parties displaying it and above all, enable them to support and reward the decarbonisation efforts of the European airline industry. 


The Label will provide standardised information on the carbon footprint of flights in the EU.


The Label information will be publically available in a machine-readable format. Stay informed via the data integrators newsletter.

How are flight emissions calculated today?

The EU Flight Emissions Label (FEL)  relies on real data from past performance to label a comparable flight in the future. When a passenger sees emissions at the point of purchase today, these figures are estimated based on assumptions and algorithms.



Estimation faces several challenges in aviation: 

The FEL provides labels with standardised methods and enables passengers to make informed decisions based on how well an airline actually performs on a route, rather than estimates based on algorithms and assumptions.

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© European Union Aviation Safety Agency 2024