It has been revealed that a sustainable travel non-profit founded by Prince Harry in 2019 has provided emissions data for more than 65 billion searches.
Travalyst aggregates data from partners including leading travel retailers trip.com Group, Booking.com, Expedia, Google, Skyscanner, Amadeus, Sabre and Travelport.
It was established to provide clear, consistent and reliable sustainability information to help travellers make more informed choices.
Sally Davey, chief executive of Travalyst, said: “Travellers have a huge influence on our collective purchasing decisions.
“Aviation emissions estimates have been scaled across our coalition partners’ booking platforms, resulting in this information being displayed on over 65 billion flight searches worldwide.
“By helping travellers book flights with lower emissions, we hope to drive demand for more sustainable supply in the long term, encourage innovation, support companies’ reduction targets and help guide policy.”
The Travel Impact Model (TIM), which estimates the life cycle emissions of flights at the individual passenger level, was developed by Google and deployed through the Travalyst coalition.
Platforms that use TIM present flight emissions information at the time of booking, allowing travellers to choose flights that are estimated to have a lower CO2e footprint than usual.
Travelers can also sort flight search results by emissions, in addition to standard filter options like cost and arrival/departure times.
TIM takes into account a variety of attributes, including flight origin and destination, aircraft type, cabin class and seating configuration, load factor and average aircraft utilisation.
Such granular data would allow emissions to be seen at the individual flight level, potentially paving the way for airlines to compete on reducing their climate impact, price and service.
Sebnem Erzan, global head of travel sustainability partnerships at Google, added: “We want to help people better understand the environmental impact of their travel choices, no matter where they’re looking for their next flight.”
“Our work with Travalyst and the Travel Impact Model makes information about aviation emissions more accessible to people around the world, helping them take action.”