Carbon offsets for Cathay customers

Environmentally conscious travelers on Cathay Pacific Airways can buy their tickets and help offset the amount of greenhouse gas spewed out by planes.

The Hong Kong-based carrier and its sister airline, Dragonair, are the latest airlines to provide customers with a way to reduce carbon footprints.

Travelers logging on to either of the airlines’ booking systems can tap in the origin and destination of their flight and calculate how much heat-trapping carbon dioxide they are responsible for releasing into the environment.

Passengers can then choose to use frequent flier miles or cash to invest in a wind farm or another “green” project in mainland China that would go toward offsetting the amount of carbon released by the flight, Cathay Pacific said.