Carbon Emission Intensity and Its Abatement Choices: A Case of China Eastern

Lei Xu (), Zhenzhen Lu, Zhiping Kang, Yingwen Duan and Junwei Zhang
Additional contact information
Lei Xu: Economics and Management College, Civil Aviation University of China, Tianjin 300300, China
Zhenzhen Lu: School of Transportation Science and Engineering, Civil Aviation University of China, Tianjin 300300, China
Zhiping Kang: College of Civil and Transportation Engineering, Shenzhen University, Shenzhen 518060, China
Yingwen Duan: Economics and Management College, Civil Aviation University of China, Tianjin 300300, China
Junwei Zhang: School of Transportation Science and Engineering, Civil Aviation University of China, Tianjin 300300, China

Sustainability, 2023, vol. 15, issue 23, 1-16

Abstract: Air transportation, which is a derived demand, is booming following the rapid development of the world economy, and carbon emissions from the air transportation industry, which takes fossil fuels as its main energy source, have been increasing. Therefore, with global warming attracting considerable attention, the issue of how to reduce carbon emissions from air transportation has become a hot issue. We take China Eastern Airlines Corporation Limited (China Eastern) as an example to analyze the main factors influencing airlines’ carbon emissions, specifically around the impact of airline internal operating indicators, such as available seat kilometers (ASK), passenger load factor (PLF), fuel consumption per unit passenger kilometer, the average age of operated aircraft, on-time performance (OTP), etc. This paper uses a correlation analysis, panel regression analysis, and other ways to explore the influence mechanism of the above factors on carbon emission intensity. The conclusions for China Eastern are the following: first, PLF has a significant negative relationship with carbon emission intensity; second, fuel consumption per passenger kilometer has a significant negative relationship with carbon emission intensity. Third, OTP has a significant positive relationship with carbon emission intensity. Fourth, fleet size has a significant positive relationship with carbon emission intensity. Finally, we propose several targeted carbon abatement measures for China Eastern, such as improving PLF and OTP, reducing fuel consumption per unit passenger kilometer, speeding up fleet renewal, etc.

Keywords: China Eastern; carbon emission intensity; carbon abatement measures (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/15/23/16383/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/15/23/16383/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:15:y:2023:i:23:p:16383-:d:1289765

Access Statistics for this article

Sustainability is currently edited by Ms. Alexandra Wu

More articles in Sustainability from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().