Ryanair has called on the EU to include long-haul flights to its measures of aviation’s emissions impact and not to only measure flights within the EU.
Ryanair group chief executive Michael O’Leary said: “Recently proposed EU legislation confining the monitoring of aviation’s non-CO2 impact to only intra-EU flights – yet again exempting long haul flights, which account for the majority of EU aviation emissions – is indefensible and undermines the EU’s green agenda and credibility. We call on the EU Commission to adopt a “polluter pays” principle and to end the indefensible exemption of polluting long-haul flights from EU enviro. regulation.”
As part of Ryanair’s first quarter results, Mr O’Leary touched on the group’s sustainability credentials, saying: “Ryanair is Europe’s number one-rated airline for ESG by Sustainalytics, and enjoys industry leading ratings from both MSCI (A) and CDP (A-). Our new aircraft and increasing use of SAF has positioned Ryanair as one of the EU’s most environmentally efficient major airlines. During Q1, we took delivery of 10x B737-8200 “Gamechangers” (4% more seats, 16% less fuel & CO2) and continued to retro-fit winglets to our B737NG fleet (target 409 by 2026), reducing fuel burn by 1.5% and noise by 6%. In April we extended our partnership with Trinity College Dublin’s Sustainable Aviation Research Centre to 2030. TCD’s facility supports the acceleration of SAF deployment, and funds important non-CO2 research.
