easyJet names new sustainability lead

European airline easyJet has appointed Lahiru Ranasinghe as its new Director of Sustainability, succeeding Jane Ashton.

Ranasinghe was previously the airline’s Head of Net Zero, and has worked in the airline industry for more than a decade. Before joining easyJet in 2019 and later integrating its sustainability team, he held a series of strategy roles at British Airways and Virgin Atlantic.

He replaces Jane Ashton, who became easyJet’s first sustainability director in 2020, setting up the sustainability function and spearheading efforts to decarbonise the airline’s operations.

In 2022, under Ashton’s helm, easyJet published a science-based target to reduce jet-fuel related greenhouse gas emissions intensity by 35% per revenue tonne kilometre by 2035, from a 2019 base year.

“I am honoured to take on this role and continue on the journey that I started with Jane Ashton,” said Ranasinghe. “We have made a great start, and easyJet is on track to meet our interim target of 35% reduction in GHG emissions intensity by 2035. Nevertheless we have a challenging and exciting journey ahead and it is a privilege to take on the responsibility of guiding easyJet and the wider industry towards a more sustainable future.”

Aviation decarbonisation woes

Recent reports suggest that the aviation sector will struggle to meet its ambition to achieve net zero emissions by 2050, due to the “disappointingly slow” ramp-up of sustainable aviation fuel production.

According to the International Air Transport Association (IATA), the slow pace of development is partly due to a lack of government incentives to push fossil fuels producers to move to more sustainable fuels. But other reports suggest that it is also because airlines are not giving a strong enough demand signal to the SAF market.

Think tank Transport and Environment (T&E) has found that the SAF purchases made by 77 airlines would only lead to a 0.15% to 1.3% increase in SAF consumption by 2030 – reducing the sector’s greenhouse gas emissions by less than 1% or “not even enough to offset growth in air traffic”.