In this episode, we speak with Martina Di Palma and Achilleas Achilleos, Sustainable Aviation Officer and Strategic Programs Officer respectively at the European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA), about the EU’s Flight Emissions Label (FEL).
The FEL is a regulatory scheme that gives airlines a verified, harmonised way to disclose CO2 emissions to passengers. EASA, as an independent authority within the EU’s aviation system, plays a central role in ensuring consistency and credibility in how these emissions are communicated.
The Flight Emissions Label forms part of the same legislative package as RefuelEU Aviation, the EU’s SAF mandate framework. Currently, participation is voluntary for airlines within European jurisdictions, and the label aims to tackle a persistent challenge in aviation sustainability: the lack of a standardised approach to calculating emissions.
Here are the key highlights of the conversation:
What makes the Flight Emissions Label trustworthy and harmonised (7:36)
How transparency can be a commercial advantage for airlines (18:00)
How and where passengers will see emissions data (22:31)
Safeguards against greenwashing and selective disclosure (28:05)
How the label accounts for SAF and incentivises uptake (31:03)
Label 2: airline index and aircraft technology labelling (33:45)
Implementation challenges and reporting burden (39:23)
Keep reading for a detailed overview of the episode.
Why a harmonised standard matters to aviation’s credibility
Aviation faces a distinct transparency challenge. While passengers can already check the carbon footprint of a flight across multiple platforms, each carbon calculator relies on its own assumptions, methodologies, and typically uses estimated rather than actual fuel burn, leading to inconsistent results. This results in the same flight yielding different figures for its CO2 emissions depending on the tool a passenger consults.
For passengers trying to make informed decisions, this is effectively meaningless noise. And for airlines, the fragmentation creates a different kind of problem: when anyone can choose which calculator to display their emissions through, the incentive to select the most flattering one is obvious.
The FEL is intended to address this gap, not by replacing existing tools, but by establishing a single standard that airlines operating within the EU must use if they choose to communicate CO2 emissions to passengers.
“The idea is that, at least within the European Union, there is a single method for doing this, so when airlines disclose emissions, consumers can be confident they have all been calculated in the same way,” explains Achilleos.
EASA’s role as an independent authority is central here. Unlike commercial platforms, it has no commercial interest in how emissions are presented. The aim, as Achilleos puts it, is to create a direct and transparent channel between airlines and passengers, free from concerns about greenwashing, where airlines can clearly communicate their efforts to reduce environmental harm.
Four takeaways from the conversation
1. Real data, not modelled estimates
A key distinction that Di Palma and Achilleos emphasise about the FEL is the use of actual fuel burn data. Most existing calculators rely on estimates. They approximate how much fuel an aircraft type is likely to burn on a given route and use that to calculate emissions.
The FEL takes a different approach: “What we’re doing differently is getting actual data from the airlines. That’s the difference. It’s not based on estimates that other calculators have,” says Di Palma.
Much of this data is already reported by airlines under existing frameworks such as EU ETS, CORSIA, and RefuelEU. These datasets have already been subject to verification, and are used to ensure that emissions calculations are based on real operational data rather than modelled assumptions.
2. The first-mover dilemma: risk versus transparency
Participation in the FEL is currently voluntary, and initial consultations with airlines identified concerns around early adoption. In particular, airlines raised questions about the implications of publishing verified emissions data ahead of competitors.
“Being a first mover can have some negative consequences for airlines that choose to implement the Flight Emissions Label in their operations. So indeed, there was some pushback: ‘Why should we be the first? We are the ones exposing ourselves by putting our emissions on display,’” says Di Palma.
Achilleos points to several incentives for early participation, stating that airlines that adopt the label early can contribute to shaping how the scheme evolves over time. He also highlights the role of transparency, noting that “transparency can be a powerful marketing tool for an airline.”
He also draws a parallel with other sectors where disclosure became standard practice over time, citing examples such as calorie labelling in food and beverages. In those cases, early adopters accepted a degree of commercial risk while making information more visible to consumers.
In addition, the label provides a way for airlines to communicate their investment in sustainable aviation fuel (SAF). Within the EU regulatory framework, airlines are required to meet SAF-related obligations under RefuelEU Aviation, and the label offers a mechanism to demonstrate these efforts to passengers and the wider public.
3. Integrating SAF use into emissions calculations
One of the label’s key design features is how it accounts for SAF, incorporating its impact directly into the CO2 calculation. As airlines increase their use of SAF, the reported emissions for a given flight decrease accordingly.
Di Palma describes both the mechanism and its intent: “The more airlines use SAF, the lower the CO2 emissions from their flights. This is therefore a mechanism to incentivise airlines to purchase and use more SAF in their operations.”
EASA is working with airlines, including Air France-KLM, to refine how SAF is accounted for within the label, particularly as the scheme is implemented and tested in practice.
4. Expanding the scope of emissions reporting
FEL currently assesses emissions on a flight-by-flight basis. EASA presents this as a starting point, while also exploring how the framework could evolve to reflect broader aspects of airline sustainability.
One area under consideration is how performance might be assessed at an airline level. As Achilleos explains: “It could be, for example, that if we are assessing an airline as a whole, it may make more sense to consider how much SAF it uses overall, rather than on a flight-by-flight basis.”
Alongside a potential airline-level index, EASA is also looking to develop a technology label for aircraft, intended to indicate environmental performance at the product level. This would complement the flight-based label by adding another layer of information to the system.
EASA has also made the code base for its emissions calculator publicly available, with the intention that other regions could adopt a similar approach.
By standardising how emissions are calculated and presented, the FEL addresses a long-standing gap in aviation sustainability communication. Its next phase will test how this framework can expand beyond individual flights to reflect broader performance. The outcome will shape how emissions data is understood by both airlines and passengers.
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