Analytical Models for CO2 Emissions and Travel Time for Short-to-Medium-Haul Flights Considering Available Seats

Abstract

Recently, there has been much interest in measuring the environmental impact of short-to-medium-haul flights. Emissions of CO2 are usually measured to consider the environmental footprint, and CO2 calculators are available using different types of approximations. We propose analytical models calculating gate-to-gate CO2 emissions and travel time based on the flight distance and on the number of available seats. The accuracy of the numerical results were in line with other CO2 calculators, and when applying an analytical fitting, the error of interpolation was low. The models presented the advantage with respect to other calculators of being sensitive to the number of available seats, a parameter generally not explicitly considered. Its applicability was shown in two practical examples where emissions and travel time per kilometre were calculated for several European routes in a simple and efficient manner. The model enabled the identification of routes where rail would be a viable alternative both from the emissions and total travel time perspectives.

A comparison of the environmental impact of turboprop and turbofan-powered aircraft

“…The IMPACT developed by EUROCONTROL is a webbased modeling application that allows the examination of the environmental impact of aircraft in terms of emissions and noise, according to the ANP, AEM and BADA databases (Montlaur et al, 2021). The IMPACT application uses the mentioned databases and the user inputs to calculate fuel burn, CO 2 , H 2 O and other gas emissions (NO x , SO x , CO, unburned or partially combusted HC, soot and other trace compounds) as well as aircraft noise for each phase of flight, period, FL range and so on.…”

“…Gas mixtures and small particles are produced when kerosene, a hydrocarbon, is burned as fuel in gas turbine aircraft. Aircraft emissions include 71.5% carbon dioxide (CO 2 ), 28% water vapor (H 2 O) and 0.5% other gas emissions; nitrogen oxides (NO x ), sulfur oxides (SO x ), carbon monoxide (CO), unburned or partially combusted hydrocarbons (HC), soot and other trace compounds (Young, 2017). These air pollutants can affect the air quality in the surrounding areas of an airport as well as in far distant areas.…”

“…NO x is not a GHG but increases tropospheric ozone (O 3 ) and reduces ambient methane (CH 4 ). Emissions which include CO and HC are the result of incomplete combustion of kerosene and are considered to be hazardous pollutants, and they have more effect below 3,000 ft [Landing and take-off (LTO) and ground operations] when engines operate at low combustion efficiencies (Young, 2017).…”

“…The CORSIA aims to reduce emissions and noise caused by international flights. The air transport industry organizations agree that the growth in international flights post-2020 should be carbon neutral by approving the action plan (Young, 2017). Regional flights (covering less than 500 km) have the highest CO 2 intensity, which is described as the amount of CO 2 per revenue passenger kilometer (Baumeister, 2019; Filippone and Parkes, 2021).…”