How the CAA’s new guidance on emission reporting will impact airlines and passengers
February 11, 2026
The UK Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) has issued new guidelines that will place airline climate claims under greater scrutiny, while helping passengers make better-informed choices.
The CAA’s new emissions reporting guidelines aim to make sustainability data clearer, more comprehensive, and more consistent. Ultimately, this will hold airlines more accountable for their environmental claims, rather than greenwashing, and make it easier for travellers to compare carbon emissions from different flights.
What do the CAA’s new emissions guidelines mean?
Under the framework, airlines and travel platforms selling flights to or from the UK must provide more transparent and consistent emissions information based on standardised methodologies. This includes the amount of carbon emitted per flight.
While this information is currently available on some comparison sites, the UK regulator wants to move beyond fragmented information towards harmonised, comparable reporting. This will enable passengers to compare one airline against another when searching for and booking their flight, so they can determine how ‘green’ their journey is.
Tim Johnson, Director at the UK CAA, said that “providing understandable and comparable emissions data will enable passengers to make more informed travel decisions.”
Emissions reporting must be based on real operational factors
The CAA’s new framework builds on a 2024 consultation, with the regulator expecting that by 2027, organisations will have had sufficient time to adopt the new guidance. The framework encourages transparency through reporting based on real operational factors, such as aircraft type, seating configuration, and fuel use, rather than generic averages that risk masking performance differences.
Johnson is encouraging all airlines and travel companies that “advertise or sell flights in the UK which depart from or arrive at UK airports to follow this guidance.”
As a regulatory body, the CAA has gone one step further. It underlines that if airlines and other organisations that advertise and sell applicable flights in the UK do not take credible steps to display accurate environmental information for consumers using one of the listed methodologies, it will consider additional actions, including whether a mandatory approach is necessary.
Cost and technical hurdles
During the CAAs consultation, some airlines highlighted that there are significant financial and technical challenges to setting up full emissions reporting systems. In particular, the investment required to build the systems to collect, check, and share environmental data is a major hurdle, especially for smaller airlines and travel platforms.
Airlines also noted that operational factors, such as last-minute aircraft changes, can render pre-published data inaccurate, further complicating the maintenance of real-time or event-driven updates.
Stakeholders have called for the CAA to address these barriers through collaboration with industry, international regulators, and other stakeholders. Collectively, they advocate for phased implementation, voluntary pilots, and the use of existing reporting systems such as Emissions Trading Schemes (ETS) and the Carbon Offsetting and Reduction Scheme for International Aviation (CORSIA) to reduce costs and complexity while ensuring robust, reliable emission reporting.
Airline carbon reporting linked to market-based policies
The CAA underlines that for airlines and travel providers, the implications of comprehensive, uniform reporting extend beyond customer communication.
With the methodologies for calculating emissions information aligned with international initiatives, such as the EU Flight Emissions label and the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) frameworks, the CAA advocates that carbon reporting is now tied to climate policies and financial rules.
Airlines must report emissions to meet requirements like carbon pricing and offsetting schemes, including the UK’s ETS.
Emissions reporting that aligns with net-zero goals
As the UK moves toward net-zero aviation goals, emissions reporting also supports broader decarbonisation policies, such as the wider adoption of sustainable aviation fuel (SAF), operational efficiency improvements, and long-term technology shifts.
For passengers and investors, the CAA’s move to standardised reporting could signal a major change. Reliable data will let people compare airlines, increase accountability, and may change how airlines compete.
Featured image: Adobe stock
