co2gap

An open observatory of CO2 and flight inefficiency in Europe, measured from ADS-B trajectories.

For every flight it computes the CO2 actually emitted and compares it with an ideal flight: same aircraft type, direct great-circle route, the most fuel-efficient altitude and speed profile for that distance, and the same real wind. The difference is split into a lateral component — the route — and a vertical one — the profile.

It measures the distance from a theoretical optimum, not recoverable fuel: published estimates of what is actually recoverable are far smaller. Results are aggregated by route and airport only; nothing is published per flight, per aircraft or per operator.

First release: 1 September 2026.
Method, code and data sources are published together with the figures. The organisations named in the first release were notified in writing before publication, and any response is published next to the figure it concerns.

A personal project, built with AI assistance. I am not an aviation professional, an air traffic controller or a climate scientist — the method is open precisely so that people who know the field can check it.

Contact hello@co2gap.org · Mastodon · Bluesky · LinkedIn
Trajectories © adsb.lol contributors (ODbL) · wind: ERA5, Copernicus · performance model: OpenAP, TU Delft.