It was with deep frustration that I noted various commenters on LinkedIn seizing on a recent Guardian article titled ‘Revealed: how aviation emissions could be halved without cutting journeys’(1) – which reported on an academic paper(2) published in Communications, Earth and Environment that described how aviation emissions could be halved without reducing journeys. The three main solutions proposed were flying newer aircraft, replacing premium classes with economy seating and increasing load factors, yet each of these comes with their own challenges. The cheap seatsCompanies such as the UK's Mirus Aircraft Seating are refining economy class seats. It does not appear that this was included in the model and would in reality offset some of the calculated emissions reduction. Of course reducing empty seats will reduce emissions per passenger, but no practical solutions to increase load factor to the proposed 95% are suggested.

Source: The Guardian February 13, 2026 10:09 UTC