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Air shipments

Calculate the CO₂e emissions for a shipment by air using one of two methods:
  1. Simple estimate: A single input method that doesn’t require specific flight information.
  2. Granular estimate: A detailed method that requires additional details, such as flight number and departure date, or aircraft type, for greater accuracy.

Pre-requisites

Complete the following setup steps before using this guide:
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Generate an API key and authenticate your account.
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Set up Client Accounts to track emissions for your individual customers.
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Review how to calculate emissions for multi-leg shipments using the API.

1. Gather shipment details

  • As air shipments do not use containers, the mass parameter in the request should be strictly in tonnes, kilograms or grams.
    • Simple estimate
    To create a simple estimate, choose one of the following for the method property:
    • passenger_plane: For passenger aircraft that also carry cargo ("belly freight").
    • cargo_plane: For dedicated cargo-only aircraft.
    • plane: For unknown plane configurations, this option will use a weighted average of passenger and cargo aircraft emissions.
    For example, to specify a leg travelling from Toronto Pearson Airport (YYZ) to London Heathrow Airport (LHR) on a cargo plane, the object would look like this:
  • Simple air shipment leg
    • Granular estimate
    To calculate a precise estimate, include both the flight_number (in IATA or ICAO format) and departure_on (as a UTC timestamp) in the method object.For example, the legs object below represents a shipment segment that flew on flight number AC 856 from Toronto Pearson Airport (YYZ) to London Heathrow Airport (LHR), departing on 28 October, 2024.
  • Granular air shipment leg
    • If the flight number is not available but you know the aircraft model, you can replace flight_number and departure_date with aircraft_type in the method object. Use the ICAO aircraft code to specify the model of the aircraft, as shown in the example below:
  • Aircraft model method
    • If the aircraft model is provided, we can perform all relevant calculations except those that depend on the exact flight path. We apply industry averages for the aircraft model to maintain as much precision as possible.

    2. Make the API request

    To calculate emissions for air shipments, use the /estimates/shipping/multi-leg/ endpoint. Send a POST request to this endpoint to create an emissions estimate.
  • Include the Authorization header with your API Key as a Bearer Token. To associate the emission calculation with a specific client account, add either a Lune-Account header or a client account object to your request.
    • Sample request
    The sample request below generates an estimate for a shipment with one leg transported by air from Toronto Pearson Airport to London Heathrow Airport.
  • CURL request for an air shipment
    • To interpret the results, go to the Multi-leg shipment guide. If your shipment has multiple legs involving different transport methods, refer to the relevant guides for constructing your multi-leg object.Success! You’ve successfully calculated emissions for the air transport legs of your shipment. You’re on the path to a greener supply chain!

    What to do next...

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    Offset the calculated emissions by purchasing carbon credits through the API.
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    Generate an analytics report for your customers about their emissions.

    Troubleshooting

    When using the granular estimate, if the methodology property may return flight_number_unavailable_fallback. This indicates that a simple estimate was applied, likely because the flight could not be located.If this happens, check the following:
    • Ensure the departure_on date is correctly formatted in UTC.
    • Confirm the source and destination airport codes are accurate.
    For further assistance, contact our support team.