Carbon reduction plan to 2050

Pathway to Net Zero

Aviation has been classified as a ‘hard to abate’ industry. This requires Gama Aviation to set a programme to achieve Net Zero that:

• Reduces our own Group’s Scope 1,2 and 3 GHG emissions, mitigating those that remain by using responsible offset schemes that work in accordance with our CSR goals
• Reduce, wherever possible, customer demand-initiated Scope 3 GHG emissions through the incorporation of changes in flight operations, ground operations or any other areas that may reduce fuel burn without compromise to safety
• Offset to mitigate customer demand-initiated Scope 3 GHG emissions, should the prevailing technologies of the planning period be unable to provide the reduction in C02e forecast
• Positively influence and encourage the adoption of new, enabling technologies, that are commercially available / feasible to reduce customer demand-initiated Scope 3 GHG emissions
• Supports new and enabling technologies that seek to reduce GHG emissions across the wider aviation sector

Basis of reduction targets (2020 to 2050)

• Both our targets and the model will be reviewed annually with progress being measured against our audited streamlined energy & carbon reporting (“SECR”) obligation.
• Reduction targets will be calculated on a five-year incremental basis and reflect the Group’s total tonnes of CO2e (scope 1,2 & 3).
• On an annual, and five yearly basis, the Group will review the projected targets based on the availability of accelerating carbon reductive technologies such as SAF, synthetic fuels and hydrogen.
• On an annual, and five yearly basis, the Group will review the ambition of the projected targets based on the Group’s prevailing strategy, it’s business model and service mix.

Access our full Carbon Reduction Plan

Reduction targets and assumptions to 2050

The FY 2024 SECR report has indicated a rise in the Group’s Total Gross Location-Based Emissions (tCO2e) and Total Scope 1&2 Gross Location-Based Emissions (tCO2e). We believe the movement has been caused by the following movements within the business:

Historically:

• The 2020 sale of our US aviation business which had the effect of reducing the Group’s total managed aircraft fleet (by c55%) and subsequently its downstream, customer initiated, GHG emissions.
• The global COVID-19 pandemic supressed flight requirements further and caused some clients to sell aircraft, further reducing the managed aircraft fleet.

Affects within FY ’24:

• The sale in November 2023 sale of our US maintenance group, Jet East.
• The purchase of the trade and assets of Specialist Aviation Service and the increase of the rotary fleet by eight Leonardo AW169 aircraft.
• The full year effect of two new contracts for the Wales Air Ambulance and Bond Helicopters to a total of five Airbus H145 D2 and four Leonardo AW139.

The industry remains a ‘hard to abate’ industry where change is dependent on improvements in technologies (fuel, engine and airframe) that the Group has little or no control over. In 2024 we saw a reduction in OEM (Airbus) and powerplant (Rolls -Royce) programmes this included the insolvency of novel technology pioneers such as Lilium. Therefore, within the next five-year business planning horizon our confidence is narrowing in their being a:

• Breakthrough, subsitute technologies or fuel types achieving commercial scale prior to 2040
• Developments in hydrogen and electric power overcoming their current technical limitations until at least 2040 (pink or blue hydrogen will be reliant on investment in power generation systems that are unlikely to achieve scale for sometime)

We do remain focused on continuing to implement improvements via our Project Element Six programme particuarly within the Group’s ‘controllable’ emissions contained within scope 1 and 2 plus aspects of scope 3.

Forecast reduction target 2020 to 2025

The Group projects that carbon emissions will decrease over the next five years to 36,739 tonnes of CO2e by 2025.

The basis of this forecast is predicated on:

• Project Element Six (the Group’s carbon reductive plan) will continue to improve performance in the Group’s own Scope 1,2 & 3 GHG emissions, however this will be somewhat offset by business growth and the addition of aircraft into the fleet.
• Project Element Six’s workstream three (transitioning clients to a lower carbon future) will increase the level of carbon mitigation through offsetting by our clients, however the take up of SAF will continue to be low due to pricing and availability.
• • Flight traffic has risen; however, this is rising in areas such as Air Ambulance and HEMS (both of which are exempt from CORSIA measurements. As such, reporting in FY 2025 will be broken down by flight activity type, differentiating air ambulance / HEMS activity.
• The Group will maintain a policy of using carbon offset schemes to mitigate any Scope 1, 2 and partial Scope 3 emissions that cannot otherwise be reduced.
• Fuel technologies such as SAF will not reach critical mass (as per the Department of Transport’s own projections) and therefore, these will only provide marginal gains during the planning period.

Access our full Carbon Reduction Plan

Forecast reduction target 2025 to 2030 and 2030 to 2035

The Group projects that carbon emissions will decrease by 5% between 2025 -2030 and a further 5% between 2030 – 2035, such that by 2035, 27,007 tonnes of CO2e are being emitted. This is an increase of 10,000 tCO2 from our previous forecast.

The basis of this forecast is predicated on:

• A more conservative decrease of 5% per planning period, based on our decreasing confidence that substitute fuels and / or technologies will be at sufficient commercial scale to positively influence our plan.
• A continuation of the baseline activities with no major changes in the business model or mix. Aircraft additions are likely to remain steady and the emissions impact of them is likely to be lower, given the prevalence at this stage of next generation aircraft, fuels, and the optimisation of air traffic control to reduce unnecessary fuel burn.
• Fuel technologies such as SAF will begin to be present as viable options within the UK supply chain with prices dropping as volumes increase. This will be largely predicated by the following actions: an increase in demand from the airlines, increase in UK supply infrastructure, taxation / incentivisation to switch to SAF (i.e., reduction in the cost differential to ‘fossil’).
• The strong likelihood that the current managed fleet will have largely been upgraded by the aircraft’s respective owners, to be more fuel efficient, thus reducing fuel burn and GHG emissions.

Access our full Carbon Reduction Plan

Forecast reduction target 2035 to 2050

The Group projects that carbon emissions will decrease by 15% over the five years to 2040 and then a further 50% from 2045. At the end of this period 1,274 tonnes of CO2e are forecast to be emitted.

The basis of this forecast is predicated on:

• A continuation of the baseline activities with no major changes in the business model or mix.
• Fuel technologies such as SAF will have broken out (as per the DoT’s projections) and will be largely available such that the fossil equivalent is minimal. Further technologies such as eVTOL and hydrogen will also become mature, accelerating progress towards net zero by the end of the planning period.
• The managed aircraft fleet’s owners will now have taken one or two replacement cycles and are most likely to be using the most efficient technologies available to them during this period.

Access our full Carbon Reduction Plan

Project Element Six. Our carbon reduction and transition programme

Project Element Six is sponsored by the CEO and is our principal programme to reduce scope 1,2 & 3 carbon emissions to 2050. Currently project Element Six has four workstreams which are described below:

• Workstream 1: Data collection, auditing, and mitigation via offset. Through this workstream we aim to improve audit accuracy and data such that the Group has, in the future, a near real time view of carbon emissions. This requires some change to systems, policies, and behaviours.
• Workstream 2: Fix & Optimise. Through this workstream we will aim to fix, optimise, or add policies / processes and changes in procurement practice that seek to lower the Group’s scope one, two and three emissions through change.
• Workstream 3: Educate and transition. Through this workstream we will advise our client base, moving them to lower carbon options introduces in conjunction with leading audit / offsetting partners that can aid in compensating and reducing carbon emissions.
• Workstream 4: Partner to develop low carbon alternatives. Through this workstream we will work with industry to assist in the development / use of low carbon technologies (fuels, engines, systems, platforms) that may substitute current technologies to achieve a low carbon future.