| ‘aircraft configuration’ | The number of seats fitted to an aircraft cabin as assigned to each cabin class. In the IATA SSIM manual this is referred to as the seating configuration, whereas aircraft configuration is A 1–3 character airline-defined code which represents a specific version or layout of an aircraft within a single aircraft type. While the SSIM aircraft configuration code may be useful to determine different aircraft configurations, its lack of standardisation implies challenges with use in the labelling system. |
| ‘aircraft operator certificate’ (‘aoc’) | ‘air operator certificate (AOC)’ as defined in Article 2, point 8, of Regulation (EC) No 1008/2008 of the European Parliament and of the Council(5); |
| ‘aircraft operator schedule’ | A statement of the flights to be operated by an aircraft operator including details regarding the flight number, origin and destination, times of departure and arrival, the aircraft technology to be used and the aircraft configuration. Schedules are commonly communicated in a standardised SSIM data format. |
| ‘aircraft operator’ | Aircraft operator falling under the scope of Regulation (EU) 2023/2405; |
| ‘aircraft’ | An aircraft as defined in Article 3(28) of Regulation (EU) 2018/1139 and by an International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) code; |
| ‘airport’ | means an ‘airport’ as defined in Article 2, point 1, of Directive 2009/12/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council(6). Any land area specifically adapted for the landing, taking-off and manoeuvring of aircraft, including the ancillary installations which these operations may involve for the requirements of aircraft traffic and services, including the installations needed to assist commercial air services and which is identified by the set of alphanumeric characters determined by ICAO and the international air transport association (IATA); |
| ‘aviation fuel’ | Fuel as defined in Article 3(6) of Regulation (EU) 2023/2405; |
| ‘aviation fuels greenhouse gas scheme’ | a scheme granting benefits to aircraft operators for reducing greenhouse gas emissions from aviation fuels; |
| ‘aviation fuels life cycle emissions’ | carbon dioxide equivalent emissions of aviation fuels that include carbon dioxide equivalent emissions of energy production, transport, distribution and use on board, including during combustion, and which represent the sum of carbon dioxide (CO2), methane (CH4), and of nitrous oxide (N2O) emitted, calculated in accordance with point C of Annex V to Directive (EU) 2018/2001 and, where applicable, other relevant Union law and international standards, and data and methodologies which reflect the latest scientific developments developed under the ICAO framework, and measured in grammes of carbon dioxide equivalent per megajoule; |
| ‘block aviation fuel’ | the amount of aviation fuels consumed by an aircraft when operating a flight, from its initial movement from its parking place at the departure airport until it comes to a complete stop at the parking place at the arrival airport, measured in tonnes; |
| ‘block time’ | the total time elapsed from the aircraft’s initial movement from its parking place at the departure airport until it comes to a complete stop at the parking place at the arrival airport, measured in minutes; |
| ‘cabin class’ (‘class’) | the distinct service and accommodation provided to passengers which is characterised by the specific configuration of the seats in the cabin, amenities, and fare structures; |
| ‘cabin emissions per passenger-kilometre’ | the result of dividing the estimated cabin emissions per passenger by the distance of the operated route, measured in grammes of carbon dioxide equivalent per passenger-kilometre; |
| ‘cabin emissions per passenger’ | the result of dividing the cabin emissions by the average number of passengers on the flights in the previous corresponding scheduling period, measured in kilogrammes of carbon dioxide equivalent per passenger; |
| ‘cabin emissions’ | the proportion of flight emissions attributed to the cabin, measured in tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent; |
| ‘carbon dioxide equivalent’ (‘co2eq’) | means the unit of measurement comparing the radiative force of a greenhouse gas to that of carbon dioxide (CO2); |
| ‘cargo-only flight’ | A scheduled or non-scheduled air service performed by aircraft carrying revenue loads other than revenue passengers, excluding flights carrying one or more revenue passengers and flights listed in published timetables as open to passengers. |
| ‘conventional aviation fuel’ (‘CAF’) | ‘Conventional aviation fuels’ as defined in Article 3(14) of Regulation (EU) 2023/2405; |
| ‘digital reporting tool’ | a digital platform developed and managed by the Agency as the unique point of contact with aircraft operators for the reporting of data and for the distribution of labels; |
| ‘direct flight’ | A ‘flight’ operated between two airports without any intermediate stops and operated with the same call sign; |
| ‘expired labels’ | labels that are past their validity period; |
| ‘flight emissions’ | the estimated aviation fuels life cycle emissions of a flight operated by an aircraft operator which are made up of cabin emissions and freight emissions, measured in tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent; |
| ‘flight emissions label’ | (FEL) A label applied to a given flight in an Aircraft Operator Schedule based on the combination of Aircraft Operator, Route, Aircraft and Aircraft Configuration. A label may differ between summer and winter seasons to reflect differences in seasonal traffic demand and operations. |
| ‘flight label record’ | the unique records of data issued by easa for the purposes of the flight emissions label. As the FEL must be machine readable and apply to multiple future seasons, a unique label record is created for each season. As such, each flight emissions label may have up to five flight emissions label records. |
| ‘flight’ | An air transport operation being as it were a unit of such transport, performed by an aircraft operator and which can be made up of more than one ‘direct flight’. |
| ‘freight emissions per tonne-kilometre’ | the product of dividing the estimated freight emissions per tonne by the distance of the operated route, measured in grammes of carbon dioxide equivalent per tonne-kilometre; |
| ‘freight emissions per tonne’ | the product of dividing the freight emissions by the average mass of freight carried on the aircraft in the previous corresponding scheduling period, measured in kilogrammes of carbon dioxide equivalent per tonne of freight; |
| ‘freight emissions’ | the proportion of flight emissions attributed to freight, measured in tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent; |
| ‘freight’ | goods, materials, and parcels other than passenger luggage transported on board an aircraft, measured in tonnes; |
| ‘fuel batch purchases’ | a term used to describe purchases of fuels with specific known lifecycle emissions. While for the purposes of labelling these are commonly referred to as Sustainable Aviation Fuels, or ‘SAF’. As the label accepts eligible aviation fuels under CORSIA, ReFuelEU Aviation, and EU ETS. The term SAF presents challenges in a unified definition. As such the term fuel batch purchases is used in lieu of a unified definition of SAF or eligible aviation fuels. |
| ‘greenhouse gas scheme’ | ‘Greenhouse gas scheme’ as defined in Article 3(27) of Regulation (EU) 2023/2405; |
| ‘indirect flight’ | A ‘flight’ that which is made up of more than one direct flight, which connects two airports with an intermediate stop, in which passengers must disembark the aircraft performing the first direct flight to enter another aircraft performing the second flight, operated with different call signs; |
| ‘information sheet’ | A standard document containing the estimated flight emissions, including background information to the estimation and its expiry date of validity; |
| ‘label’ | Graphic diagram, printed or electronic, combining ‘valid flight emissions’, the ‘label logotype’ and the ‘validity period’ in accordance with Regulation 2024/3170 Annex III; |
| ‘label calculation’ | The label production process of processing reported data to produce label scores in accordance with methods outlined in the FEL calculation guide. |
| ‘label logotype’ | the image defined in Point 1 of Annex III of Regulation 2024/3170 that shall represent the verification of the flight emissions; |
| ‘label production’ | The process by which EASA processes operator reported data to produce flight emissions labels. The process involves two stages - label calculation and post calculation validation (PCV) |
| ‘label scope” | The scope of the EU Flight Emissions Label (FEL) includes emissions from flights departing from or arriving at a Union Airport as defined in Article 3(1) of Commission Implementing Regulation 2024/3170. While label holder status is voluntary, should a label holder participate it must display the label scores and logotype for all of the flights in scope. A label holder may display emissions for flights which are not in scope at the point of purchase alongside flights which are in scope provided the emissions are calculated by EASA in alignment with the data and methods used for the FEL. These emission estimates cannot be displayed with the FEL logotype and are not to be considered FEL labels. |
| ‘label status’ | An indicator or whether a label is valid and must be displayed, or any other status and must not be displayed. |
| ‘online platform’ | A digital service owned by an aircraft operator or that offers flights of that aircraft operator for purchase or comparison and that stores and makes information available to the general public; |
| ‘passenger’ (‘pax’) | a person occupying a seat within the cabin area of an aircraft at the moment of departure of an aircraft, and who is travelling aboard an aircraft for the purpose of reaching a specific destination; |
| ‘point of sale’ | a physical location or online platform service owned by an aircraft operator, or which offers the flights of an aircraft operator, where an aircraft operator, or any person authorised to represent that aircraft operator, stores and makes information available to the public about flights operated by that aircraft operator for purchase or comparison purposes. |
| ‘post calculation validation (pcv)’ | The label production process after label calculation. The result is automatically analysed to identify data outliers. Outliers and new routes or new aircraft types on routes are then estimated. The results of this process are reviewed by EASA before issuing. |
| ‘revoked label’ | labels that have been permanently cancelled by the Agency are required to be removed from communications within 15 days and could be replaced by a newly issued flight emission label; |
| ‘route’ | ‘Route’ as defined in Article 3(5) of Regulation (EU) 2023/2405 measured using the Great Circle Method in kilometres (‘km’) connecting a departure and arrival airport both defined by International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) and International Air Transport Association (IATA) codes; |
| ‘scheduling period’ | ‘scheduling period’ as defined in Article 2, point (d), of Council Regulation (EEC) No 95/93; |
| 'seat’ | A seat fitted to an aircraft on which cabin passengers may be accommodated for the duration of a journey. |
| ‘seat’ | a seat fitted to an aircraft on which a passenger may be accommodated for the duration of a journey; |
| ‘seating area’ | the area allocated for each seat for each passenger and for each cabin class, measured in square metres; |
| ‘summer season’ | The aircraft operator scheduling period from the last Sunday of March of a year until the last Saturday of October of that year; |
| ‘surveillance audit’ | Any audit of the correct display of flight emissions and labels carried out by the Agency , to confirm compliance with the display obligation or to verify the veracity of any information reported to the Agency; |
| ‘terminated label’ | Flight emissions that have been voluntarily cancelled by an aircraft operator during their validity; |
| ‘union airport’ | ‘Union airport’ falling under the scope of Regulation (EU) 2023/2405; |
| ‘valid label’ | ‘labels' which must be displayed, defined by the date of display being within the validity period and the ‘label status’ as valid; |
| ‘validity period’ | The period during which a label is valid and must be displayed, defined by a start date as of the latest of the date of issuance or valid start date, until the earliest of the end of the applicable scheduling season for which they are issued in accordance with Annex III of Regulation (EU) 2024/3170, or a valid end date defined by EASA due to label withdraw, revocation, or replacement; |
| ‘winter season’ | The aircraft operator scheduling period from the last Sunday of October of a year until the last Saturday of March of the following year; |