Our member air carriers have been leading the way in reducing carbon emissions for years. Not only is it a sustainable practice but it's also a way for us to hedge our costs going forward.
We still believe that market-based mechanisms should be the centrepiece of every carbon reduction strategy and that a carbon tax is simply the wrong policy for aviation for a number of reasons that Massimo will go into a little later.
A market-based policy should spur innovation, inform consumer choice and reduce emissions. The federal government's proposed carbon tax on aviation emissions will make air travel more expensive for Canadians and really will do nothing to help us reduce our emissions. Let's look at why.
Fuel typically represents the largest variable cost for airlines, often as much as 30% of our operating costs. I know this all too well, as I get to buy the fuel for my company. The volatility in the fuel prices and the supply challenges that we meet are great, especially in Canada where we have to import about 40% of our fuel. Our industry is also saddled with some of the highest government-imposed costs in the world. Reducing fuel consumption has become a question of survival.
Between 2008 and 2016, Canadian aviation has improved its fuel efficiency by more than 16%. Really, most of that comes from the investment in the new fleet in aircraft that we have put into operation. Alone, the four member airlines of NACC—Air Canada, WestJet, Air Transat and Jazz—will have spent $35 billion in fleet upgrades between 2012 and 2027.
There has been a massive investment that the aviation sector, including the airports and air traffic control, has made in terms of ensuring that we operate in a fuel-efficient way, such as through technologies on the aircraft, such as navigation procedures, NAV Canada having one of the best systems in the world and the airports building new infrastructure that's LEED and energy efficient. These have been measured and tracked in reports that we have worked on with Transport Canada since 2005. In fact, we have been voluntarily working with Transport Canada in terms of reducing our emissions and reporting on these on an annual basis.
We are a global business. Unfortunately, our technology is mature. For example, the latest equipment that we have introduced—the 737 MAX from Boeing and the 787s—are 15% and 20% more fuel efficient than the older aircraft that we were replacing, and these are best in class. This means that a carbon tax will simply not incentivize us to get further fuel savings and will do nothing further to help us cut and reduce our emissions.