Ardian launches an open version of Ardian AirCarbon platform to help airports reach net-zero

Ardian, a world-leading private investment house, is launching a free, open version of Ardian AirCarbon, its proprietary emission quantification and reduction tool for the aviation industry. This is the first platform showing average daily carbon emissions per country and aircraft efficiency indicators for most commercial airports worldwide. The platform is available on www.air-carbon.com.

Through its direct infrastructure investment activities, Ardian has significant experience in owning and operating European airports and has always put the net zero target for the industry by 2050 at the heart of its strategy, as detailed in the study published in 2022 The Fight for a Net Zero Aviation.

As part of this strategy, Ardian AirCarbon has been developed since 2019 by Ardian's Data Science and IT teams in close collaboration with our portfolio airport teams to support the Scope 3 emissions dynamic assessment at airports where the Infrastructure team is an investor. Scope 3 is estimated to represent more than 95% of an airport’s emissions as it covers all indirect emissions, such as those generated by an aircraft landing, take-off and taxiing, or airport ground vehicles. The platform uses granular, real-time operations data to quantify and project emissions². This enables airport operators to effectively monitor and reduce their CO2 emissions. Following successful usage by the airports and inquiries from non Ardian owned airports to access the platform, it has been decided to provide Ardian AirCarbon more broadly. The platform is currently deployed in five airports across Europe (Keflavík, Milan Malpensa, Milan Linate, Naples and Turin) and covers a total of 59 million yearly passengers³.

This new open version of Ardian AirCarbon is open to everyone and aims at monitoring on a global scale the progress made on the decarbonization trajectories for the aviation industry. The platform will thus provide open access to the aggregated Scope 3 carbon emissions of airports within each country, alongside more in-depth aircraft efficiency indicators such as the proportion of high, medium and low fuel efficiency aircraft in the overall aircraft mix of an airport at any given date. It complies with recommended methodology from the Airport Carbon Accreditation (ACA), the global certification program for airport carbon management. More information on which emissions are displayed, which airports or flights are mapped, or how Ardian AirCarbon computes emissions can be found in our FAQ.

Airports who would like to go further can also subscribe to the Pro version to access a complete view of their Scope 3 emissions, based on their operations data and including additional Scope 3 items such as half-cruise and ground service equipment emissions.

Ardian AirCarbon has already been used by airports to reach important sustainability and net-zero reporting milestones. For example, in 2024, Milan's SEA airports used Ardian AirCarbon to renew their ACA 4+ certification for the current year. This was the first time the platform had been used by an airport to report half-cruise flight emissions to the ACA.

The goal is for the platform to become a tool for the entire airport ecosystem and to support the aviation sector in achieving net-zero.

“Making Ardian AirCarbon open and available to all stakeholders is an important step in supporting the transition to a more sustainable industry. As a long-term investor and shareholder in airports, it is our duty to help secure the future of aviation for the next generations and to meet the goals of the Paris Agreement. We look forward to working with the entire aviation ecosystem to control emissions, because collectively we need to act now.” Mathias Burghardt, Executive Vice President and Head of Infrastructure, Ardian

“Ardian AirCarbon is an essential tool for airports seeking to reduce their carbon footprint and participate in the decarbonization of the industry. With this open version, we are proud to offer our expertise and help the industry achieve its ambitious net-zero goals by making it easier to access and track emissions data. We invite the whole aviation industry to use Ardian AirCarbon and join us in this essential mission.” Pauline Thomson, Head of Data Science and Managing Director Infrastructure, Ardian 

¹ The platform is accounting for other types of emissions than CO2 only, but all are expressed in carbon equivalent on Ardian AirCarbon

² The open version the Ardian AirCarbon platform computes data from multiple sources (see details in our FAQ). In the Pro version Ardian AirCarbon platform, each airport may provide its own data to refine the emissions assessment.

³ Based on the number of passengers at each airport in 2023