SAS aims for big CO2 reduction

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I have a degree of respect for SAS' environmental activity - they've been working at most of the issues for longer and more seriously than just about any other carrier. And they've been putting their money where their mouth is.

In particular they've been an industry leader in developing air traffic management (ATM) techniques to cut fuel usage - something in which I'm a big believer. Now they're formally targeting a 20% reduction in their group CO2 emissions by 2020 compared to 2007.
They actually want to halve the rate of CO2 emissions, but they're assuming 4% passenger traffic growth.

I've written about some of SAS' work with ATM. Its genesis was more to do with increasing the capacity of the European aviation system, but the sort of things you need to do to achieve that also have major environmental benefits. And as the years have gone by the environmental benefits have become just as important - especially in green-conscious Scandinavia.

Against that, they're also the operator of Europe's second-largest fleet of Boeing MD-80s - more than 50 still in-service, although some are leased out.

sas_md_80_2.jpg
Picture: SAS

That's not exactly the world's most shining example of fleet-modernisation, and the airline's fleet management have recently made clear that there are no plans to retire the type. In fact it's quite likely to stay on until the emergence of a new narrowbody seven or more years from now.

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