At a time when airlines are increasingly at the center of climate concerns, sustainability has become a key corporate function, even more so when you are one of the world’s largest and most publicly visible airline groups.

Jonathon Counsell is Group Head of Sustainability at the International Airlines Group (IAG), the holding company of British Airways, Iberia, Aer Lingus, Vueling and LEVEL.

AeroTime spoke with Counsell on the sidelines of the World Aviation Festival, which took place in Lisbon, Portugal, from September 26 to 28, 2023, with the aim of learning about how a large and complex international airline group, like IAG, approaches the quest to decarbonize air travel.

Counsell offered a glimpse of what IAG does at a group level in the field of sustainability, and how it coordinates the efforts of the different individual airlines that make up the airline group.