Ryanair ‘the new coal’ as airline enters Europe’s pollution top 10

Ryanair has become the first non-coal company to join Europe’s top 10 carbon emitters, according to EU figures.

The Irish airline, which transports 130 million people a year, declared 9.9 megatonnes of greenhouse gas emissions in 2018, up 6.9% on last year and 49% over the last five years, according to raw data in the EU’s latest emissions trading system registry.

EasyJet was Europe’s next worst-performing airline, in 31st place on the list, after an 11% surge in emissions in 2018. It was followed by Lufthansa and Norwegian.