News Release

Skylegs calculates flights' CO² offsets and ASL Group is first to benefit

The global aviation industry produces around 2% of all human induced carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions. It is responsible for 12% of CO2 emissions from all transport sources, compared with 74% from road transport. And even though jet aircraft are 80% more fuel efficient per seat kilometre than in the 1960s, they still play a non-negligible role in greenhouse gas emissions. The good news is that, as clients, both individuals and organisations, are becoming more environmentally conscious, they are willing to compensate the CO2 emissions that their flight produces. But how much would this cost?

Business aviation customers are more and more frequently requesting a flight quotation that includes the CO2 compensation cost, or at least the approximate amount of CO2 emitted during a particular trip. However, calculating this value in a separate tool for each quote flight would be highly time-consuming for aircraft operators and brokers.

The main goal of sales team members is building quotes and replying to customers' requests as quickly as possible; aware of this, Belgian flight management software developer Skylegs launched a new feature at the beginning of the year, which is part of the Skylegs Green project, an innovative initiative launched in collaboration with the Belgian Vlaio Funding Support. Both the amount of CO2 emitted and its cost are automatically calculated during quote preparation, and it can be included in the price totals or not.

This feature has been developed in the past months in conjunction with Benelux operator ASL Group, which took the great initiative of starting the Responsible Initiatives for a Sustainable Environment (RISE) project. The group will offer its passengers the opportunity to offset the CO2 emissions resulting from their flights as of now.

The CO2 offsetting is an important step towards climate change, but it is not the only measure. ASL Group wants to intensify its actions to reduce the carbon footprint of the company's operations and activities. With this in mind, the RISE project represents its ambition to contribute further to ecologically and socially responsible entrepreneurship; the project includes a number of concrete actions to reduce the environmental impact of the air operations.

Technology is a huge contributor in this matter, so Skylegs Green project will keep working on tools and ways to inspire operators to continue offsetting CO2 and reducing emissions. ASL can be taken as a great example of ecological responsibility. New measures and features will follow in 2021 and beyond.