Just three roundtrip cross-country or trans-Atlantic flights cause almost as much climate pollution as the average American household produces in an entire year. With that in mind, lots of fliers are concerned about the heavy carbon impact of their travel, and want to choose airlines that are at least operating as efficiently as possible.
Eco-conscious travelers may want to take a look at a new a new report by The International Council on Clean Transportation (ICCT), which ranks the efficiency of domestic operations by America’s major largest carriers.
The ranking shows that Alaska Airlines is the industry’s green North Star, using fuel 23 percent more efficiently than American Airlines, which is stuck near the bottom. Here are the full rankings:
This is a great tool for frequent as well as occasional fliers concerned about their ecological footprint. It should also be a red flag for airline investors. The airlines’ single biggest cost is jet fuel – more than salaries, more than health care, and definitely more than plane food – so a failure to use fuel efficiently usually means that the airline isn’t operating as ... Read more
