Aviation Sustainability Briefing Issue 6

While we were working on our first 2022 edition of the Aviation Sustainability Briefing Russia’s unprovoked attack of Ukraine happened sending shocks across the world and affecting aviation in a new, dramatic way.

The impact of the war on air traffic is currently high for some States adjacent to Belarus, Russia and Ukraine and the continued geopolitical tensions can further impact fuel prices and economic conditions. Yet if we take a look at the entire European air traffic network, we see that air traffic in Europe continues to recover. In order to support aviation in its long-term transformation towards sustainability, which requires significant planning and investment, EUROCONTROL has just released a unique long-term air traffic forecast, the EUROCONTROL Aviation Outlook 2050 (EAO 2050), which for the first time, includes estimates of net CO₂ emissions and charts how aviation can achieve net-zero. We are basing our predictions and recommendations on the three traffic scenarios described in the EAO 2050 and have taken a more in-depth look at what is possible within a shorter timeframe with our Objective Skygreen report examining also what this means in terms of costs.