Hungarian carrier Wizz Air has been crowned Europe’s most sustainable airline, according to independent ESG analyst Sustainalytics. The airline scored a 25.0 ESG Risk Rating, the lowest amongst all European carriers. The ultra-low-cost carrier boasts one of Europe’s newest fleet of aircraft and has implemented various sustainability solutions in recent years.

Wizz Air – Europe’s most sustainable carrier

Wizz Air has been named as the most sustainable airline in Europe, owing to the airline’s ‘conscious attention to sustainability.’ Sustainalytics, an independent analytics firm on environment, social and corporate governance (ESG) issues, gave Wizz Air the lowest ‘ESG Risk Rating’ in Europe.

Wizz Air CEO, Józef Váradi, said,

“We are proud to be in this prestigious industry-leading position which confirms Wizz Air’s sustainability efforts. Having been recognised as the most sustainable European airline reassures our steps in this direction and gives us extra energy to keep on developing our airline.”

Wizz’s sustainability principles are laid out by Chief Corporate Officer Marion Geoffroy,

Lowest ESG risk rating amongst European airlines

Wizz Air received a ‘Medium Risk’ score of 25.0 from Sustainalytics. Key to Wizz’s sustainability success includes the lowest environmental footprint on the continent (per passenger kilometer) with its young fleet of efficient aircraft. The airline was also the first to return pilot and cabin crew salaries to pre-pandemic levels and brought 1,000 new employees onboard.

Wizz’s other sustainability initiatives include banning single-use plastics in the cabin, paperless flight decks, and a carbon-offsetting program.

According to Sustainalytics,

“[Our] ESG Risk Rating measures a company’s exposure to industry-specific material ESG risks and how well a company is managing those risks. This multi-dimensional way of measuring ESG risk combines the concepts of management and exposure to arrive at an absolute assessment of ESG risk.”

The company explains its ESG Risk Rating in more detail below,

Ahead of sustainability rival Ryanair

As Simple Flying explored in-depth, Wizz Air and fellow low-cost carrier Ryanair have been in something of a sustainability war. Wizz CEO Váradi claims to be ahead of Ryanair as Europe’s ‘greenest airline,’ with emissions per passenger kilometer at 57 grams of CO2 compared to Ryanair’s 66 grams.

Interestingly, Sustainalytics gave Ryanair an ESG Risk Rating of 29.6, higher than Wizz’s 25.0 rating. Both ratings fall within the category of ‘Medium Risk,’ with Ryanair just 0.4 short of placing in the ‘High Risk’ category.

CEO Váradi added,

“I would like to express my gratitude to all my colleagues who have been working relentlessly to make Wizz Air the best airline in Europe. We are committed to our goals and to leading the industry by example in 2022 and beyond.”

Wizz Air has remained financially stable over the last 24 months while continuing to grow. The carrier has added over 30 new jets to its fleet, along with 300 new routes and 18 new bases. Wizz’s ultimate ambition is to triple in size by the end of the decade, with the airline aiming for 500 aircraft and 20,000 employees by 2030.

To add to its accolade of Europe’s most sustainable airline, Wizz was also recently named one of the top ten safest airlines in the world by airlineratings.com.

Do you think other airlines are putting enough effort into sustainability? Let us know your thoughts in the comments.

Source: https://simpleflying.com/wizz-air-europe-most-sustainable-airline/