Britain’s Telegraph has laid claims that there may already be a backlash on the carbon efficient features offered by the new release of Airbus’ A380. It has been cited by the publication that the new aircraft may not necessarily be as ‘carbon friendly’ as it has been promoted by airlines. Airbus itself has claimed that the A380 is the most environmentally friendly aircraft ever built, with carbon emissions of 75g per passenger per km. However, the calculation of such emissions relies completely on the number of passengers travelling onboard the aircraft for each journey. Ideally the A380 should hold at least 525 passengers in order to satisfy its low carbon emissions - it can in fact hold up to 853 economy seats. Airlines are however not working to meet such capacity and have fitted their planes to expand their business and first class sections, and are therefore operating at a lower capacity with fewer economy seats. For example, Singapore Airlines made its first commercial flight last week and flew with 471 seats across its three cabin classes. Emirates will fly with a 489 seat capacity and Qantas with a 450 seat capacity. The Telegraph also highlighted that another factor contributing to the Airbus’ shortcomings is the fact that most long-haul flights are rarely more than 80 per cent full. It cited that in August, one in five seats on Singapore or Qantas international flights were empty, and during 2006, almost one in four seats on Emirates planes went unoccupied. With such capacity figures and factors combined, it has been alleged that the Airbus A380 will in fact actually produce more carbon dioxide (per passenger, per km). The A380 will produce an average of 105.3g CO2 emissions across Singapore, Emirates and Qantas when operating on an 80% capacity. This stands in comparison to low cost carriers such as EasyJet and Ryanair who operate on a fuller capacity, with a 97.5g for EasyJet and 98.6g for Ryanair. An Airbus spokesman has commented on such figures, stating that comparisons with short-haul flights were misleading as flights of only two to three hours produce relatively low carbon emissions. In comparison to the A380, Boeing’s 747-8 is said to release 88g of CO2 per passenger per km on 80% capacity, and its Dreamliner, which will be released in 2008, has been said to improve on such figures even further.
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Airbus A380 may not be as carbon friendly as we hoped
