First-Class Flights, First-Class Emissions

This luxury comes with a correspondingly high CO₂ impact. According to the IATA recommended practice to calculate the passenger CO₂ emissions, the emissions factor for first class cabins is five times that for economy class. This factor results from the additional space required, while accounting for the slightly higher load factor of first-class cabins (usually around 90%). Of course, long-distance flights produce higher emissions than short-haul flights per se, due to the greater distances involved.

We have researched the cabin layouts of various airlines for long-haul aircraft. The Table below presents the results, showing the average seat configuration of 24 European airlines as of 2024. This includes the fleet sizes of these carriers, as well as the different aircraft types and layout variants they operate. The airlines use 16 different aircraft models from Airbus and Boeing, with up to five distinct layouts per aircraft type. The average number of seats indicated in the Table is likely representative of global long-haul flights in 2024. Further details on the methodology and sources used can be found here.

The findings are clear: A small fraction of long-haul passengers is responsible for more than one third of CO₂ emissions: Just 13.7 % of passengers fly first or business class, yet they account for 35.9 % of CO₂ emissions.