Carbon competition up above: estimating greenhouse gas emissions of Indian domestic airlines

Abstract

The Indian domestic aviation sector is on a growth path and this progress can be attributed to several factors such as an expanding economy, an increase in the average income of Indians, low and economic air fares, more schedules and options available to a traveller, and a reduction in the differential fare between air travel and air-conditioned train travel. It is well known that air travel has high carbon footprints among various modes of travel, even though domestic aviation emissions have so far remained outside any credible cap-and-trade regimes around the world and also international aviation emissions are not assigned to any nation's greenhouse gas (GHG) inventory. However, signs of carbon consciousness are emerging in the domestic and international aviation sector all over the world, including carbon off-set purchases by passengers. This article ranks airlines operating in the Indian domestic sector on their per passenger-km GHG emission basis. IndiGo, GoAir and SpiceJet were the three most ‘clean’ airlines for per passenger-km GHG emissions in 2008–2009, while Jet Airways and Alliance Air were on the other side of the spectrum. The article argues that policy push may be required for cleaning up the domestic skies from GHG emissions before credible cap-and-trade or market-based instruments could take over.