Monarch Airlines has topped the first-ever fuel-efficiency ranking of the world’s carriers amid fierce criticism of the index from Thomson Airways.
The Atmosfair Airline Index ranks Thomas Cook’s German carrier Condor second behind Monarch in its list of 116 carriers.
Thomas Cook Airlines is 35th, British Airways 61st and Virgin Atlantic 99th.
However, Thomson Airways managing director Chris Browne slammed the index, calling it “a misrepresentation of carbon efficiency” among airlines.
Brown said: “While we congratulate Monarch on their performance, we are disappointed Thomson Airways was not approached for inclusion.” She said Thomson Airways was already “the most fuel efficient airline in the UK and committed to reducing carbon emissions further”.
Both Thomson Airways and German sister carrier Tuifly are missing from the index – compiled by German carbon-offset company Atmosfair and published at trade show ITB in Berlin. Budget carriers easyJet and Ryanair are also omitted.
The index is based on points awarded for fuel efficiency – assessed according to a series of criteria – and carriers ranked for their performance on short, medium and long-haul operations. It is intended to allow consumers concerned about climate change to check a carrier’s carbon efficiency before booking a flight.
Atmosfair chief executive Dietrich Brockhagen said: “The differences between airlines can be pronounced. The fuel consumption per passenger of one airline can be double the amount of another on the same route.”
Brown was critical. She said: “We have reported on carbon emissions for the past five years and made repeated calls for all airlines to declare their emissions data. The failure to take such facts into consideration discredits this survey and highlights the need for all airlines to report publicly on their carbon efficiency in a standard format.”
However, Brockhagen told Travel Weekly: “We did not contact the airlines directly since we got all necessary data from at least two different independent sources, which allowed for consistency checks. It would render the whole index prone to bias if we took data directly from the airlines.”
He said there was insufficient data on the Tui Travel-owned airlines in these sources – which include airline association IATA and the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO). Brockhagen said: “If they [the data sources] provide data, they certainly will be in the 2012 index.”
The index excludes low-cost carriers on the grounds that these “have to be considered separately since they raise methodological problems in CO2 calculation”.
However, Atmosfair says the data it uses covers 92% of the world’s air travel. Its index calculates CO2 emissions taking account of aircraft type, engine type, the use of winglets, number of seats, occupancy, and freight capacity. Airlines with newer aircraft and more cramped seating would tend to be higher in the rankings.
The Atmosfair index rates Spanish carrier Air Europe as most-efficient on short-haul routes, Monarch as best on medium haul and Canadian carrier Air Transat as most-efficient long-haul carrier, with Monarch best overall.