Google partners with EU aviation agency on emission data standard

Google is working with the European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) to create a framework for estimating flight emissions so passengers can have reliable and easily understood information to compare flights from different airlines.

Lufthansa Group is the pilot partner in this initiative and will provide an extensive set of flight data from specific flights that can be used to improve estimates for future flights on the same routes. 

For the past few years EASA has been working on an environmental labeling scheme for aviation, with three labels in development: flight label, airline label and aircraft label. The agency said it surveyed 9,500 people from 18 European countries between 2019 and 2020, and 80% indicated they would like to get environmental information for the flights they take.

For Google, the partnership gives it access to operational data from airlines, such as fuel usage, which can be used to refine its Travel Impact Model (TIM) for flight emissions.

Google’s TIM is built on the Travalyst Aviation Framework, a set of shared principles and methodology unveiled last year by the coalition and currently used to display emissions data on Google Flights as well as by additional Travalyst partners Skyscanner, Booking.com and Trip.biz – the corporate travel arm of Trip.com.

“For Google, this collaboration is about enabling greener travel choices, through greater access to transparent and credible emissions information,” said Sebnem Erzan, head of travel sustainability and transport partnerships at Google. 

“EASA and Lufthansa Group will be critical partners in these efforts, and we highly value this opportunity to work across the public and private sector in pursuit of a more sustainable future.”

Luc Tytgat, director of strategy and safety management for EASA, said: “Working partnerships such as this are essential if we are to move forward quickly to a better understanding of how to assess emissions and to provide greater transparency on the environmental impact of aviation for the general public. Such data is only meaningful if it is credible and compiled by an independent authority, such as EASA. We believe this can make an important contribution to informing the traveling public as to which flights may be considered to be greener.”