EIR - Pollution levels from aircraft [Aug 2023]

You request

Please could you tell me what the impact of all these planes have on the pollution levels in London. How can you tell the difference between airplane pollution and car pollution?

Our response

The London Atmospheric Emissions Inventory (LAEI) 2019 contains the most recent 
modelling of emissions of key pollutants in London by source type. This is a public dataset and includes emissions estimates of key pollutants (NOx, PM10, PM2.5 and CO2) by source type (for example, road transport, aviation, rail, construction, etc) for the base year 2019.

The methodology applied to estimate emissions according to different sources can be found as part of the LAEI 2016 web page (LAEI 2016 Methodology document - PDF) on the London Datastore.

Whilst the LAEI includes emissions from aviation, it does not apportion these emissions to specific airports.

As shown by the data, summarised in the table below, aviation represents a much smaller proportion of nitrogen oxides (NOx) and fine particulate matter (PM2.5) emissions than road transport in 2019. 

London NOx emission 2019     London PM2.5 emissions 2019

If you have any further questions relating to this matter, please contact us, quoting  reference MGLA150823-4263.