Flight Carbon Footprint Calculator
Estimate the CO₂ from your air travel per passenger, from flight distance, trips per year and cabin class.
How it works
CO₂ (kg) = distance × (round-trip ×2) × trips × 0.15 × cabin factor
Aviation CO₂ is estimated per passenger-kilometre. Economy seats spread the aircraft’s fuel over the most people, so a rough factor of 0.15 kg CO₂ per passenger-km works well; premium and business seats take more room, so their per-passenger share is 1.6× and roughly 2.9× larger. This counts CO₂ only — the full climate impact of flying is higher once high-altitude effects are included.
Worked example
Two economy round trips of 2,000 km each fly 2,000 × 2 × 2 = 8,000 km. At 0.15 kg per km that is about 1,200 kg — around 1.2 tonnes of CO₂.
Frequently asked questions
Why is business class so much higher?
A business or first seat occupies two to three times the floor area of an economy seat, so it is allocated a proportionally larger share of the aircraft’s fuel burn — hence the higher multiplier.
Does this include contrails and other effects?
No. This is CO₂ only. Contrails, water vapour and nitrogen oxides at altitude are thought to roughly double the warming effect; multiply the result by about 1.9 for a "radiative forcing" estimate.
Are short flights worse per km?
Yes — take-off and climb burn extra fuel, so very short hops emit more per kilometre than long cruises. This calculator uses a single average factor for simplicity.
Related calculators
This calculator is for educational purposes. Double-check important results before acting on them.