The end of the year is also the end of a climate protection instrument by the low-cost airline Easyjet.

So far, the company has promised that compensation for CO2 emissions will be included in every ticket.

Some didn't quite believe it, the compensation seemed extremely favorable.

But Jane Ashton, Easyjet's chief sustainability officer, is convinced that the airline has done everything right.

“By the end of the year we will have offset 12 million tons of CO2.

I think it was the most powerful thing we could do for the Fall 2019 launch.”

Timo Kotowski

Editor in Business.

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However, the promise of compensation will not be continued.

"We have always made it clear that our compensation program is an interim measure," says Ashton.

From now on, it should not just be about compensation, but about avoidance.

Ashton inherited the compensation program when she joined Easyjet.

Previously, she was responsible for sustainability issues in the travel group TUI.

“Now, thanks to technological advances, we have more ways to not only offset emissions, but to significantly reduce them,” she says.

“Our goal is to reduce our CO2 emissions by 35 percent by 2035 compared to 2019, and a reduction of 78 percent by 2050.”

Between claim and action

This should succeed because legal requirements not only force us to make more efforts to combat global warming, but also because customers of the future will learn to appreciate it.

"Two-thirds of the population believe that climate change is the greatest challenge of our time," says Ashton.

“Until now, however, there was a difference between green claims and one's own actions.

It's getting smaller now." If Easyjet had left the compensation up to the passengers in the past few years, it would be uncertain whether the same amount of compensation would have been achieved.

Other airlines saw that barely 2 percent of travelers paid voluntarily.

"The criteria by which customers choose a brand are clearly changing in the direction of sustainability and more climate awareness," Ashton is convinced.

Doubts about the reduction target, such as those about the compensation program, are to be avoided.

"We are the first low-cost airline to be scientifically supported on this path by the Science Based Targets initiative and whose intermediate target has been checked and validated," says Ashton.

But other airlines have also found the same scientists, for example Deutsche Lufthansa.

But Easyjet was the first among the low-cost airlines.

“Certification for being more climate-conscious is good, but we also have to deliver,” says Ashton.

“People need to travel and will continue to fly”

From their point of view, the end of short flights is not one of them.

“Bans on short-haul flights put the wrong focus.

The majority of emissions in aviation are caused by long-haul flights, according to Eurocontrol it was 52 percent recently.” Incidentally, not a single Easyjet route is affected by the French ban on domestic flights if there is a train connection with a two-and-a-half hour journey.

“People need to travel and will continue to fly.

And we must not forget that tourism generates immense welfare gains internationally,” says Ashton.

It is more important than bans to advance the decarbonization of aviation.

"In addition, regional flights will be the first to be made possible by new technology with zero emissions." Airbus has indicated that the first alternative fuel model will have fewer seats and a shorter range than today's medium-haul jets.