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Calculate your flight emissions

Enter your flight details to estimate your carbon footprint.

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Frequently asked questions

Our flight emission calculator estimates the total climate impact of your flight — not just the CO2 from burning jet fuel, but also the upstream emissions from producing that fuel and the non-CO2 warming effects of flying at high altitude. We use the Google Travel Impact Model, which factors in aircraft type, fuel efficiency, passenger load, seat configuration, cabin class, and route distance to give you a per-passenger emissions figure in kilograms of CO2e.
It varies significantly depending on the route, aircraft, airline, and cabin class. A short-haul economy flight might produce 50–150 kg of CO2e per passenger, while a long-haul business class flight can exceed 1,000 kg CO2e. Our calculator gives you a specific figure for your exact route and travel details rather than relying on rough averages.
CO2 refers only to the carbon dioxide released by burning jet fuel. CO2e (CO2-equivalent) is a broader measure that also accounts for other warming effects — such as contrails, nitrogen oxides, and water vapour released at cruise altitude. Because these non-CO2 effects roughly add 70% on top of the direct combustion CO2, the true climate impact of a flight is approximately 1.7x the fuel-burn CO2 alone. Our calculator reports the full CO2e figure so you see the complete picture.
You can use the calculator in two ways. For the most accurate result, enter your flight number and departure date — we’ll look up the exact aircraft, airline efficiency data, and route. Alternatively, you can enter your origin airport, destination airport, year of travel, and cabin class for a reliable route-based estimate.
Cabin class has a significant effect on your per-passenger emissions. Business and first class seats take up more physical space on the aircraft, which means each passenger in those cabins is allocated a larger share of the plane’s total fuel burn. Economy class passengers share the fuel cost across more seats, resulting in lower per-person emissions.
Yes. When you select "return flight," the calculator doubles the one-way emissions. This is a known simplification — in reality, prevailing winds can make one direction slightly more fuel-intensive than the other — but it gives a reliable overall estimate for your round trip.
Yes. Simply enter the number of passengers in your booking and the calculator will multiply the per-passenger emissions accordingly.
Our calculator uses the Google Travel Impact Model (TIM), which is the same model used across the travel industry. When you provide a flight number and date, we retrieve flight-specific data — including the exact aircraft type and airline — for the highest possible accuracy. Even with just a route and cabin class, the model uses robust industry averages for load factors, aircraft mix, and fuel efficiency on that route.
We source emissions data from two places. The Google Travel Impact Model provides per-passenger CO2 figures based on aircraft type, fuel efficiency, load factors, seat configuration, and route distance. For flight-number lookups, we also use the Aero Data Box API to resolve your flight to a specific aircraft and route. Our non-CO2 multiplier is based on peer-reviewed research by Lee et al. (2021) and is aligned with UK DEFRA’s latest greenhouse gas reporting recommendations.
When aircraft fly at high altitude, they produce climate-warming effects beyond just CO2. These include contrails (the white trails that trap heat), nitrogen oxides (which affect ozone and methane levels), and water vapour released where it has a stronger warming effect. Scientific research shows these non-CO2 effects can add around 70% to the direct combustion CO2 impact, making the total climate footprint of flying roughly 1.7 times the CO2 alone.
It’s the full lifecycle of aviation fuel. Tank-to-Wake (TTW) covers the CO2 released directly during your flight from burning fuel. Well-to-Tank (WTT) covers the CO2 produced upstream — extracting crude oil, refining it into jet fuel, and transporting it to the airport. Together, Well-to-Wake (WTW) gives you the complete CO2 footprint of the fuel your flight uses.
We convert your results into everyday equivalences so the numbers mean something tangible: Days of UK household emissions (~28.5 kg CO2e/day), Kilometres driven (136 g CO2/km), Weeks of household electricity (~40.4 kg CO2e/week), Kettles boiled (~15 g CO2 each). For example, a London-to-New York return flight in economy might equate to roughly 30+ days of average UK household emissions.
Many flight carbon calculators only report direct CO2 from fuel burn. Our calculator includes the full climate impact: direct CO2, upstream fuel emissions, and the non-CO2 warming effects (contrails, NOx, water vapour). This gives a more complete and scientifically honest picture of flying’s climate impact. We believe it’s better to understand the true footprint so you can take meaningful action.
Yes. The Google Travel Impact Model uses real industry data on typical load factors (how full each flight or route tends to be) for its calculations. You don’t need to guess — it’s already built in.

Flying is one of the great connectors of modern life — bringing families together across continents, opening up new cultures, and keeping the global economy moving. But it’s also one of the more carbon-intensive things most of us do, and it’s worth taking it seriously.

The good news is there are some straightforward ways to reduce your impact before you even get to the airport. For shorter journeys, the train is often just as convenient and a fraction of the emissions. When you do fly, choosing a direct route over a stopover makes a meaningful difference — layovers add more take-offs and landings, which is where fuel burn is highest. Flying economy also matters more than people realise: business and first class seats take up significantly more space and therefore carry a larger share of the aircraft’s total emissions. Some flight search tools now show the fuel efficiency of different aircraft, so it’s worth a look if you have flexibility.

And when flying is the right choice — which it often will be — the most honest thing you can do is know your actual impact and take responsibility for it. Use an accurate calculator like this one to understand the climate cost of your journey, then support verified carbon projects that either avoid emissions or actively remove an equivalent quantity of carbon from the atmosphere.

It’s not a free pass, but it’s a meaningful step — and it funds the kind of climate solutions the world urgently needs more of.

You’ll notice we don’t use the word “offsetting” much here — and that’s deliberate. It’s a term that implies your emissions are cancelled out, neutralised, or erased. They aren’t. No amount of funding climate projects undoes the carbon that went into the atmosphere when your flight took off. “Offsetting” has become shorthand for a transaction that lets you off the hook, and we don’t think that’s an honest framing.

What we’d encourage instead is thinking of it as funding climate action — supporting verified projects that avoid or remove emissions elsewhere in the world, alongside your own efforts to reduce the flights you take in the first place.

Does that make it “enough”? Honestly, not on its own. The most meaningful thing any of us can do is reduce emissions at source — flying less, choosing the train for shorter trips, picking direct routes. But for the flights that are genuinely worth taking, calculating your climate impact accurately and directing real money towards high-integrity climate projects is a responsible and worthwhile step. It contributes to real-world emissions reductions. It funds solutions the world needs. And it’s far better than doing nothing.

So rather than asking whether it’s enough, we’d invite you to think of it as part of a bigger picture: reduce what you can, and take meaningful action on the rest.