It’s become standard practice in the last few years for private air travel providers to offer their customers the option of a offsetting the emissions of their flight for a small fee. This year, in honor of Earth Day, fractional operator Avantair is taking it a step further by paying to offset the first five flight hours for new fractional owners of the Piaggio Avanti P.180, through an alliance with leading carbon offset outfit TerraPass. Avantair has been a partner with TerraPass since last August, when it began allowing owners the chance to offset their flights.

For eco-conscious private air travelers, the P.180 was already a good choice. The nine seater with twin propeller engines in push configuration is remarkably efficient, with a fuel burn of 98 gallons per hour. The P.180 is able to travel .966 miles per pound of gasoline, far superior to the .55 miles for the even the most efficient jets in its class.

While Avantair’s Earth Day carbon offset promotion is certainly laudable, we’d like to see fractional providers and fractional and charter card operators take the next step by offsetting all of their flights without requiring an opt-in by the consumer. As we’ve reported in the past, the price of these offsets is negligible compared to the cost of flying privately. In fact, offsetting a private flight comes in at less than one percent of the total flight cost.