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Geneva Airport cleans up its emissions but ignores its past

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In 2016, the airport says it removed 10,000 tCO2 from the atmosphere, the amount it emitted that year. It has been investing in extracting carbon since 2011.

© Hai Huy Ton That | Dreamstime.com

Based on its emissions effort in 2016, it became one of 37 carbon neutral airports, according to airport carbon accreditation.

These emissions relate only to the airport and exclude emissions from the growing number of flights in and out of it.

How is the airport removing CO2 from the atmosphere?

It buys carbon credits from Ecoact and South Pole. The money is invested in efficient wood burners for rural Kenyans and the construction of an electricity plant, powered by burning crop waste, in China. The hope is these projects compensate for the airport’s emissions.

Does this make Geneva Airport carbon neutral?

It depends on how you look at it.

If we add CO2 to the atmosphere without increasing the rate nature takes it out, it builds up. Dealing with this year’s CO2 doesn’t do anything to reduce past emissions that still linger on in the atmosphere for many many years.

Using assumptions from Yale Climate Connections, and a load of others1, we calculated that there might still be 200,000 tCO2 lingering in the atmosphere related to Geneva Airport’s past activities – this calculation is based on a lot of assumptions and is likely to be highly inaccurate.

If the world continues to ignore CO2 build up, focusing only on new additions, the build up will continue.

While Geneva Airport still has some work to do, it is proactively working on cleaning up its CO2 emissions.

By contrast, easyJet, the airport’s largest airline, says its aircraft emitted around 7,100,000 tCO2 in 20172, a 9% increase on 2016. According to the company’s corporate responsibility commitment, it appears to offset none of this – a link on the company’s website to a carbon calculator redirects to a page showing cheap flights to Nice. Its key emissions metric is emissions per passenger kilometre, a measure that ignores growing passenger numbers and will never lead to reductions in the stock of CO2 the airline continues to add to the atmosphere.

More on this:
Geneva Airport press release (in French) - Take a 5 minute French test now
1 Geneva airport opened in 1920. Calculation assumes emissions increase from 1,000 tCO2 in 1920 to 10,000 tCO2 in by 2011 – 5,000 tCO2 on average. Annual rates of CO2 stock decline are interpolated between 0% and 50% during the first 50 years and between 50% and 70% over the following 50 years. This is a rough calculation with many assumptions and is likely to be highly inaccurate.
2 12 months to 30 September 2017.

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Swiss say they underestimated Easyjet in Geneva

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Tribune de Genève.

The managing director of french-speaking Switzerland for the airline Swiss, Lorenzo Stoll, admits to errors in their strategy to win back Geneva. “We should not hide it, we attempted to move too fast” he said. Adding “We clearly underestimated the challenges of taking on Easyjet”.

Easyjet in Geneva - © Noamfein | Dreamstime.com

Easyjet in Geneva – © Noamfein | Dreamstime.com

Easyjet is by far the largest operator at Geneva airport. With 43.2% of the market it is well ahead of Swiss (15%) and British Airways (4.7%).

In an interview published by the newspaper Le Temps, Lorenzo Stoll also explained how Swiss’s “oversized” expansion of its network at the airport had failed.”We went from 13 to 42 destinations in a year without adding any new planes. We need to pare back our offer from 40 to 30 routes while increasing the number of flights on some of them.”

In addition, more fuel efficient Bombardier C100 and C300 aircraft, that will go into service in April next year, will expand the airline’s offer, adding new exclusive destinations.

Mr Stoll made assurances that Swiss would remain in Geneva. “Taking away planes or pulling out of Geneva is inconceivable.” With 25 million potential passengers by 2030, the airport is of “fundamental importance”. “On the other hand what could happen is a change in the company operating flights from the airport.” According to various media sources, Swiss’s parent, Lufthansa Group, was looking at the possibility of flying planes from its low cost airline, Eurowings, from Geneva.

In 2013, Swiss launched a plan for Geneva. “The aim was to deliver it before next year. However the context changed” he said, with the rise of the Swiss franc, Russia’s economic crisis, Brexit, and terrorist attacks. “The combination of these head winds has forced us to readjust at our plans.”

As a result, the Lufthansa subsidiary is at least a year behind its plan to breakeven in Geneva, which was expected by the end of 2016-early 2017. In order to meet this target, the airline is hoping for a load factor of 80%.

Tomorrow Easyjet is running a promotion. The airline is offering a chance to win free flights on 2 and 23 September 2016. The flights are for weekends away. To win you need to go to Geneva airport at 4pm with a friend, your passports, cabin baggage and your smartphone with the Easyjet application on it and enter. The destinations, which are unknown, will be announced every 10 minutes as the winners are drawn. There will be draws every 10 minutes between 4pm and 5pm. The offer was posted on Easyjet’s Facebook page.

More on this:
Read full Tribune de Genève article (in French) - Take a 5 minute French test now

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Is Geneva airport really one of the world’s worst five?

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On 28 July 2015, the British newspaper the Independent, posted a thirteen-line article listing the worst five airports in the world written by senior travel writer Simon Calder. Geneva’s Cointrin was listed number four.

© Majorosl66 | Dreamstime.com

© Majorosl66 | Dreamstime.com

No methodology or data were presented to support the author’s conclusions. For example, it is not clear which airports were included in the analysis, or how those included were compared.

The article said “Forget the stereotype of Swiss efficiency: the rapid growth of passenger numbers at the British traveller’s key Alpine airport has not been matched by much-needed investment.”

Nearly two months later, the Tribune de Genève relayed the Independent article to its readers with a headline proclaiming: “Cointrin is one of the five worst airports in the world”.

Independent readers suggested the author visit Bujumbura, Monrovia, Juba, Kinshasa, Dacca, Cairo, Kabul, Baghdad, Nairobi, Tashkent and Lahore airports and revise his conclusions. Another suggested the writer doesn’t travel much, while one insinuated his research didn’t include entire continents such as Africa, Western Asia and South America.

Defenders of Cointrin said it is quick, even when there’s a queue, offers regular free ten-minute train trips to the city centre, and being tiny you can’t miss a connection, unlike the horrible running distances at mazes like Heathrow.

One Tribune de Genève reader said that as usual Anglo-Saxon airports are deemed better despite the transit hassle at Heathrow. Others complained of Cointrin’s poor car access, crowded check in counters, overflowing security areas, the limitations of one runway and how Bern invested in Zurich’s airport but not in Geneva’s.

The most popular comment on the Tribune de Genève website simply said “Useless article that gives no reasons for Geneva airport’s ranking”

The CIA world fact book put the global number of airports at 41,821 in 2013. Is placing Geneva’s in the bottom five fair? What do you think?

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