RYANAIR

Sustainability Overview

For the longest time, Ryanair, Europe’s largest airline by passenger numbers, has been known for flying millions of passengers at rock-bottom prices. In the last couple of years, however, the airline has made a conscious effort to change the narrative and present itself as “the greenest and cleanest airline in Europe”.

Source: Ryanair

Ryanair’s sustainability efforts are defined as “Aviation with Purpose” in its most recent sustainability report. While the airline says it is committed to growing annual traffic from 149m to 225m customers annually over the next 5 years, it insists that this planned growth will be accompanied by lower cost of air travel and reduced environmental impact.

At the centre of Ryanair’s sustainability strategy is the following plan: cutting CO2 emissions per passenger/km by 10% over the next decade; use 12.5% SAF fleet-wide by 2030; and to be plastic-free on board within the next 4 years. Most importantly, at the heart of Ryanair’s environmental strategy is their $22bn investment in new ‘Gamechanger’ aircraft which will reportedly deliver more seats per flight with more leg room for improved comfort, yet burn 16% less fuel and reduce noise emissions by up to 40%.

Meet The Changemaker

Thomas Fowler is Director Of Sustainability and Finance at Ryanair, where he has worked for over 15 years. For the last three years, Thomas has been leading Ryanair’s sustainability initiatives. When it comes to sustainability, Thomas is quick to get right to the point. He believes two things are needed at the EU and national levels to support the aviation industry’s net zero ambition.

The first is that more needs to be done to incentivise the production of SAF. “The additional production of SAF and greater availability of raw materials are needed to support mechanisms that can cover additional costs for products brought to market. Similar incentives have been introduced in the US and since then we have seen the US overtaking the EU in SAF production efforts”, he says with a touch of disappointment.

The second thing is the immediate introduction of the Single European Sky initiative that aims to increase the efficiency of air traffic management and air navigation services by reducing the fragmentation of European airspace. Thomas believes this alone will help reduce the emissions generated by the aviation industry by up to 10%, by removing unnecessary route changes and the imposition of longer flight times.

Opportunities And Challenges

Continuing on SAF, Thomas says – like many of his other airline counterparts –that since the vast majority of fuel used in aviation is fossil jet fuel (refined petroleum known as kerosene), moving to SAF is a viable solution to minimise global warming

Source: Ryanair website

On 19th April 2021, Ryanair & Trinity College Dublin announced the launch of the Ryanair Sustainable Aviation Research Centre. With this partnership, Ryanair commits to power 12.5% of its flights with sustainable aviation fuels by 2030 causing carbon emissions by up to 80%. The advantages, of course, are that SAF can be blended with fossil jet fuel (as a drop-in fuel) and requires no special infrastructure or changes to equipment. Once blended, this fuel can be fully certified and have the same specifications as that of fossil jet fuel.

“That is why we teamed up with Trinity College Dublin to accelerate the use of SAF”, he says. “By appointing best-in-class researchers, we’ll achieve our industry-leading goal of powering 12.5% of our flights with SAF by 2030.”

Thomas has also been driving Ryanair’s communications push about its sustainability efforts. In November 2021, Ryanair published their first sustainability report. The report communicates the airline’s goals, targets, and initiatives that support their sustainability agendas. Its most recent report is even more comprehensive and Ryanair’s sustainability efforts are defined as “Aviation with Purpose”.

“We have also begun using social media more to communicate our message. In keeping with the brand of Ryanair, we are communicating our sustainability strategy in a clear, simple, and (almost always) fun way. An example of this is the video we published to mark International Women’s Day”, says Thomas.

In addition, Ryanair is also investing time and effort into on-the-ground engagement. The airline has been engaging with governments, industry bodies, and other forums over the past few years sharing with them Ryanair’s sustainability efforts and what more needs to be done. For example, the CEO, Michael O’Leary, met with policymakers in Brussels at the end of 2021 and continued his outreach in 2022.

Looking Ahead

In recent months, there have been a spate of announcements as Ryanair has ramped up its sustainability efforts. In December, it signed a memorandum of understanding with Shell to access up to 360,000 tonnes of SAF from 2025 to 2030, a fifth of what it says it needs to reach its 12.5% target. Earlier in September this year, the airline signed a deal with OMV for 160,000 tonnes of SAF. The Vienna-based OMV will provide Ryanair with SAF at select airports in Romania, Austria, and Germany.

In November this year, Ryanair announced a partnership with Citi to become the first European airline to deposit funds in its new Sustainable Deposit Solution, which launched earlier this year. This means that Ryanair can now invest excess cash to support different sustainable financing projects across Citi’s portfolio. These include a range of areas such as water conservation, renewable energy, as well as healthcare and education in emerging markets.

That’s not all. Ryanair is betting on the future and investing in it too. Earlier this year, IE School of Science and Technology hosted the IE Sustainability Datathon in partnership with Ryanair. This year’s corporate challenge will enable students to work alongside the company for three weeks, with Ryanair providing a dataset and a sustainability problem for students to solve with predictive modelling.

In the early days, the business criticality of sustainability was sometimes difficult to get across. Nowadays it is well understood within the business world that sustainability is critical to future success. However, short-termism can sometimes still be challenging, not only in business but across society.

Jane Ashton Sustainability Director at easyJet