When listening to the radio in the UK, a Ryanair advert came on saying it was one of the cheapest and low emission airlines.
I agree with the cheapest part but doubt the low emission part. Ryanair has published a statement here. But there has also been news reports saying its one of the high emission airlines here.
What is the truth to this?
They have modern planes, low overhead and high utilization, which should make them low-emission per pax.
On the other hand, it is a well-known paradox when you become more efficient at consuming some resource when fulfilling a need, which increases demand superlinearly so total use of that resource becomes higher. If low costers did not exist, there would probably be half as many flights, which would be less fuel efficient but will still emit less.
