Analýza eko-efektivnosti v evropských leteckých společnostech na základě koncepčního rámce posuzování životního cyklu

The impact of aviation on climate change is mainly related to emissions of carbon dioxide (CO2), nitrogen oxide (NOx) and water vapour (H2O) released by aircraft engines, which in turn occur largely at higher altitudes. Among these greenhouse gases, CO2 deserves more attention since it corresponds to about 70% of aircraft engine emissions, while H2O consists in little less than 30% and NOx is released in much lower concentrations that represent together with other gases less than 1% of overall engine emissions. The inclusion of CO2 emissions from international aviation in the European Union Emissions Trading Scheme (EU ETS) in 2012 has forced commercial airlines based in Europe to restructure their flight operations in a more eco-efficient manner, i.e., by reducing their overall fuel consumption and CO2 emissions while avoiding loss of competitiveness and even increasing the amount of passengers flown. The purpose of this research is to highlight and demonstrate that some opportunities for increasing eco-efficiency of airlines within the context of climate change mitigation are available and manageable by commercial airlines based in Europe despite the complexity and problems of the European civil aviation scenario. These opportunities are shown by means of a simplified life cycle analysis conceptual framework oriented to climate change mitigation in their flight operations. In order to achieve this goal, author estimates the average fuel consumption and CO2 emissions per passenger-kilometre in different perspectives of analysis based on data provided by three largest European airlines in terms of total passengers carried per year. These airlines are Deutsche Lufthansa AG, Air France (a subsidiary of the Air France-KLM group), and British Airways (a subsidiary of the International Airlines Group). Different approaches are adopted and compared in the estimation of fuel consumption and CO2 emissions and also for testing proposed hypotheses that aim to validate the eco-efficiency opportunities. By using these approaches and hypotheses, the study compares the possible reductions in fuel consumption and CO2 emission from suggested changes in aircraft choice for hub-to-hub flights for short-haul, medium-haul and long-haul distances. It also estimates the fuel cost and the climate change cost per passenger for different flight alternatives.