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We discussed numbers in a previous article published here: How much does business aviation contribute to global carbon emissions? At the end of the article, we promised to discuss how business aviation can mitigate its carbon emissions. Here it is.

If your imagination already takes you to high-tech SF-looking aircraft flying high in the planet's blue, pristine, unpolluted skies, well, we’ll start with something simpler and readily available—humans.

Every flight has a lot of planning behind it, and its efficiency is based on that. It starts by counseling the potential owner or client, acquiring the plane or booking a business flight, putting everything in the books, planning the flight by dispatch, establishing the most costs and fuel-efficient routes, transitioning the most fuel-efficient airspaces, using the machine in the most fuel-efficient way (we are talking pilot’s artistry here,  flying the right Mach number, and flight regime), fuel tankering, APU usage on the ground, and finally, canceling or refusing a flight that it is not fuel efficient, or justified. At the core of all these strategies is a simple yet powerful idea - investing in the labor force. This isn't just about hiring more people, it's about cultivating a team of highly efficient employees who can make informed decisions, allocate resources effectively, and ultimately, reduce carbon emissions.

Consider  the sales process. A more streamlined approach means fewer empty legs and less fuel wasted. Imagine the famous monthly spiderwebs. How many of these sectors are empty? How many are underutilized due to a lack of clear purpose? By improving the sales processes, we can make every flight count.

Dispatchers: Better planning—better routes, more efficient fuel usage, real-time weather and weather patterns, seasons, and determining when to fly to avoid useless diversions.

Brokers - better client counseling – what plane to buy according to their real needs and not just for selling a plane and making a commission. This idea automatically leads to the following ones, below:

Better plane usage. Why own a Global 7500 when it is used on average for one-hour long flights? Why own a CJ if the intention is to use it for trans-continental flights? How many sectors and fuel stops are needed for a CJ for such a flight, and how many for a Global?

Better plane usage: Make the trip count. Don’t fly when you don’t really have to. Don’t use precious resources for nothing.

Is the trip sharable? Having other passengers on board, like carpooling, might make it more fuel-efficient.  It sounds like a privacy violation, but many people, rich or not, don’t mind sharing. They have nothing against sharing a business jet ride with different people as long as they have the same destination. Business may flourish along the way.

The political context is a less controllable situation but still human-related. An unfriendly international situation leads to more airspace to fly around. In the actual political context, a flight from Tokyo to London has to go all around Russia, Belarus, Iran, and so on. More distance to cover, more fuel to burn. Down the drain goes the green deal!

And now, we can mention the technicalities:

Better aircraft certification is still human-related, as most of this is paperwork. ETOPS 60 vs. ETOPS 120 vs. ETOPS 180. Shore hugging vs. deep ocean flying. Most modern aircraft are very reliable machines. The certification process is a paperwork process. Make it simple, legal, and safe. Distance, time, and fuel will be saved.

Companies should invest in the environment. Part of the revenue can be invested in green energy, reforestation, and any other climate mitigation actions. For real, not just greenwashing by buying coupons. That’s just paper or digital bites.

Finally, we get to the sci-fi part – technology:

Better wings,

Better engines,

Green fuel.

AI.

But this needs time, research, and especially goodwill, as not all viable ecological solutions are also high-profit generators.