Small change. Big difference.
GreenSkies Initiative
Lastest Update: April 2024
At Loganair, we are passionate about the future of our world. That is why in October 2021, we launched our GreenSkies initiative.
We are proud to be the first UK regional airline to take such an ambitious step towards managing and mitigating the environmental impact of flying, and we see our decision as a clarion call for all transport providers – road, rail and ferry as well as aviation – to address and reduce emissions across the entire transport industry.
We have set ourselves a goal to have our operations carbon-neutral by 2040.
As part of our journey, we promised to keep you informed of our progress and the latest developments - and that's why 12 months on, we've included some information below about how we're getting on.
Short term - what's been happening
One part of our GreenSkies programme is a small mandatory zonal GreenSkies charge as part of every fare; these funds are then invested in internationally accredited carbon offset schemes to take the same amount of carbon out of the atmosphere that each flight produces.
Our GreenSkies charge is based on a zonal scale and is aimed at aligning the carbon offset charge with the levels of fuel used depending on the distance you fly.
In the last six months, Loganair has purchased carbon credits which have gone towards the following projects:
Wind Power Project - India
- Orange Mamatkheda Wind Private Limited (OMWPL) is setting up a wind power project in villages around Gurmitkal Mandal of Yadgir District, Karnataka. 30x G-97 Turbines give the project output of 60 megawatts. The project activity leads to an average annual emission reduction of 128,410 tCO2e.
Reforestation Project - Brazil
- Floresta Verde REDD+ Project protects over 53,000 hectares of the Eastern Amazon. The project is located in the State of Pará. Its development and execution are by the Amazon Reforestation Consortium (ARC), which has extensive experience in implementing projects with rural communities. The ARC is improving agroforestry techniques among local people and diversifying their livelihood sources away from livestock management to end deforestation in the area. The project mitigates over 30 million tCO2e emissions across a 10-year period.
Hydro Electric Project
- Qinghai Maqin Gequ Level 2 hydropower Station will generate electricity free of greenhouse gas emissions and displace the same amount of electricity currently generated from the Northwest China Power Grid (NQPG), which is largely dominated by electricity from coal-fired power stations today. The project will generate over 250,000 megawatts of electricity and is estimated to reduce on average 123,000 tCO2e per year over a 7-year period.
Biodiversity Conservation Project - Peru
- The Tambopata-Bahuaja Biodiversity Reserve, located in Madre de Dios, Peru, conserves threatened tropical rainforest in an internationally-recognised biodiversity hotspot of the Peruvian Amazon. The lush forests provide habitat for a wide variety of rare and endangered wildlife. The project integrates conservation and sustainable economic development to protect 591,951 hectares of forest (an area about the size of the county of West Sussex). By helping local farmers transition to sustainable cacao production in the margins of the protected area, degraded land is being restored, reducing the effect of deforestation and providing local communities with forest-friendly and sustainable livelihoods. The project is part of the Althelia Climate Fund and implemented in partnership with AIDER, a local Peruvian NGO.
We have also invested in local projects via our GreenSkies Community Fund.
Longer term - looking to the future
We are in the race to net zero, but it isn’t a sprint. We want to ensure that the steps we’re taking now will have a significant impact on our future. While the carbon offsetting programme is the first step, we need technology that removes the carbon altogether.
Fuel developments
We will be introducing sustainable aviation and hydrogen fuel, in addition to battery electric and hydrogen-powered light aircraft, in incremental phases as technological advances allow.
Fleet Renewal
So far, we've welcomed twelve more fuel-efficient ATR42 and ATR72 turboprops into the fleet as part of our fleet renewal programme. The next generation ATR42 and 72 aircraft will bring up to 27% in carbon emissions per seat versus their predecessors. We are on track to retire all of our older Saab 340 aircraft by the end of the summer 2023 season.
Research and Development Projects
Through the Future Flight projects, we have been engaging with leading aerospace and technology companies to ensure we can have the systems we need to achieve our carbon-neutral goal. Part-funded by Innovate UK, the Future Flight program is designed to develop the future, cleaner technologies necessary to enable aviation in the coming decades.
Non CO2 effects
We have partnered with the UK Met Office to install and carry specialist water vapour sensors across our entire Embraer 145 fleet. These sensors will provide the UK Met Office with unparalleled real-time, high-quality data across the UK, supporting and improving overall weather forecasting in the UK. The data will also be used by Loganair and leading UK universities to study the indirect climate effects of aviation, specifically the impacts of Loganair’s flights on high-altitude cloud formation. We believe that this is the first time an airline’s entire fleet has been equipped in this way, and the data generated will be unique in its high fidelity. This data will provide a unique basis on which leading atmospheric scientists can study aviation’s indirect impacts, helping to improve our understanding of the upper atmosphere and subsequently enabling us to develop climate mitigations such as contrail avoidance techniques.
Project SATE 2
Together with industry partners, Loganair has helped to secure £8.9 million of funding for the launch of Project SATE 2. SATE Phase 1 saw the development of the UK's first operationally-based, low-carbon aviation test centre, located at Kirkwall Airport in the Orkney Islands and is partly funded by UK Research and Innovation (UKRI). SATE 2 aims to align innovative new technological developments with practical use cases. Loganair's involvement in this stage is key as an active partner. Our team will provide expert advice and input to the consortium as they assess the use cases for electric and hydrogen-electric aircraft. In addition, we are working with HITRANS and the Connected Places Catapult to model the social and economic impacts of various regional air network scenarios.
Extension of Project HEART
Project Heart is a consortium of aviation industry organisations, including Loganair and Edinburgh Napier University, that have responded to the ISFC Future Flight Challenge (FFC) by Innovate UK. The project in which we participate has successfully been awarded funding for the next two years. The aim of the project is to produce new integrated aviation systems that allow for new types of zero emissions and more autonomous aircraft. Loganair is supporting the research for new digital management systems and terminal and ground support infrastructure.
In January 2023, ZeroAvia, one of Loganair’s partners on the project, successfully flew its latest Hydrogen powered testbed aircraft. This is a major milestone in the development of clean, Hydrogen powered aviation, and whilst lots of hard work remains to be done, the following flight test program will expand the capabilities of the fuel cell system and pave the way for a certified commercial aircraft
Ground Fleet Renewal
Backed by a £1.5 million investment in state-of-the-art ground equipment, we have recently conducted our first ‘all-electric turnaround’ of our aircraft at Stornoway Airport, and the very first in the history of flying in the islands’ network.
- Everything from Ground Power Units (GPUs), AmbuLifts, baggage trucks and aircraft tugs were previously diesel operated but have now since been replaced by electric.
- This achievement will rapidly mitigate the need for over 70,000 litres of diesel per year consumed by their old diesel equivalents in the Highlands and Islands network.
