On 1 January Air France started offsetting 100% of the CO2 emissions of its domestic flights and waved goodbye to one of its ten Airbus A380s.
As announced in October, the offsetting of emissions on internal flights by the French national airline began on 1 January 2020: its customers can now “fly carbon neutral” within mainland France, representing a total of 450 flights and 57,000 passengers each day.
Like easyJet which offers “net-zero carbon flights” by offsetting emissions with accredited Gold Standard and VCS (Verified Carbon Standard) schemes, Air France’s offsetting is managed through six certified projects in South America (Brazil & Peru), Africa (Kenya) and Asia (India & Cambodia), all selected with the help of EcoAct, a French pioneer in carbon neutrality.
Air France and EcoAct will also be developing two projects in France, as part of the new low-carbon label. This voluntary offsetting programme “falls within the general approach to reducing the environmental footprint” implemented by Air France through “the renewal of its fleet, its operating practices and its partnership with the Solar Impulse foundation to develop sustainable aviation solutions”. Between now and 2030, the SkyTeam alliance airline plans to reduce its CO2 emissions per passenger/km by 50% compared with 2005.
The Air France A380 with registration F-HPJB appears to have completed its last commercial flight, no. AF111 between Shanghai-Pudong Airport and its base at Paris-CDG where it landed on 31 December at 05:35; the Superjumbo jet no longer features on any listings and has been returned to its owner, leasing company Dr Peters Group.