Transport & Environment, the European Federation for Transport and Environment that includes non-governmental organizations, has published a study showing that airline emissions have returned to pre-pandemic levels. The European aviation sector in 2024 reached 96% of the number of air connections of 2019 and 98% of emissions, the press release states it. Over 8.4 million connections from European airports generated 187.6 Mt of CO2, exceeding pre-Covid emissions within Europe. The companies that polluted the most, again according to the study, were Ryanair (16 Mt CO2), Lufthansa (10 Mt CO2) and British Airways (9 Mt CO2).

All the routes -departing from Europe- responsible for the highest emissions are intercontinental, in particular the London-New York route. While tariffs are applied to emissions caused by travel within the European Union, the same does not happen for intercontinental ones: 70% of CO2 emissions from air transport are therefore not subject to tariffs.

The European Union will soon review its Emissions Trading System (ETS), extending it to all departing flights. This could generate significant revenue: it is estimated that if extra-European emissions in 2024 had been priced, €7.5 billion would have been earned. Some airlines, however, are promoting the global aviation offset program Corsia (Carbon Offsetting and Reduction Scheme for International Aviation), which is much less expensive but less useful for developing green technologies.