ICAO and Amadeus Join Forces to Help Manage Aviation Carbon Emissions

MONTREAL – 2 November 2009 – The International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) and Amadeus, a global leader in technology and distribution solutions for the travel and tourism industry, have signed an agreement for ICAO to supply Amadeus with data from its Carbon Emissions Calculator. The data will allow Amadeus’ worldwide customer base to estimate the carbon footprint of air travel.

With the Calculator, the best publicly available sources of information are used in the calculations. The methodology, which was developed through ICAO’s Committee on Aviation Environmental Protection (CAEP), takes into account a range of variables such as aircraft type, route specific data, passenger load factors and cargo carried.

“We are delighted to support the industry in its effort to address the complex issue of calculating individual carbon footprints from air travel and we believe ICAO is the right partner to bring a unified and common approach,” said David Jones, President and CEO of Amadeus. “Through our technology, data management capabilities and the results from the ICAO Carbon Calculator, we aim to help our customers meet their environmental objectives.”

“Every day, more than one million passengers fly with bookings processed by Amadeus reservation platforms,” added the company’s Group Environmental Officer, Lucas Bobes. “For this reason, Amadeus has a responsibility to provide neutral, objective information, and shares a common interest with ICAO in making sure the calculation of emissions is done in a rigorous and consistent manner.”

Amadeus will integrate the data into its travel reservation platforms by mid 2010.

“Air travel is essential to our global society. Reducing its carbon footprint is key to ensuring the sustainable growth of air transport,” said Raymond Benjamin, Secretary General of ICAO. “This agreement between ICAO and Amadeus will make more individuals and organizations aware of their carbon footprint, ensuring that those wishing to offset will be doing so based on an official, globally accepted tool,” Mr. Benjamin added.

Earlier this year, ICAO’s Carbon Calculator was adopted by the United Nations (UN) as the official tool for all UN bodies to quantify their air travel CO2 footprint in support of the UN Climate Neutral Initiative. The Initiative calls for all agencies and units of the UN system to determine their total carbon emissions.