Flight emissions data shown in over 65 billion searches worldwide

• Travellers confess they don’t want to spend time researching how sustainable their travel plans are, despite claiming that sustainability is important to them.
• Major booking platforms around the world are working to make it easier for travellers to identify lower-emitting flights at the point of planning and booking.
• Flight emissions information has been shown to travellers in over 65 billion searches globally.

Travalyst has scaled flight emissions information globally, with emissions data appearing in over 65 billion searches¹. The search figure, released by Travalyst – the not-for-profit organisation founded by Prince Harry, The Duke of Sussex – aggregates data from a number of its coalition partners², which include Amadeus, Booking.com, Expedia Group, Google, Sabre, Skyscanner, Travelport, and Trip.com Group.

It comes as new research³ from Travalyst reveals that 47% of travellers say sustainability is important to them when making travel choices; yet they need information readily available so that the decision making process is made easy, because almost two thirds (63%) don’t want to spend time researching how sustainable their travel is.

Travalyst’s mission is to get clear, consistent and credible sustainability information into the hands of travellers globally to help them make more informed choices. The Travel Impact Model (TIM), which estimates lifecycle emissions for flights at the individual passenger level, was developed by Google and has been scaled through the Travalyst coalition.

Platforms using the TIM present flight emissions information at the time of booking so travellers are able to choose a flight with an estimated lower-than-typical CO2e footprint⁴. On some platforms, travellers can also sort flight search results by emissions, alongside standard filter options such as cost and arrival/departure time.

For example, the typical CO2e per passenger on a one-way economy flight from London (LGW) to New York (JFK) is 466 kg⁵. Popular booking platforms highlight an option that is 12% (57 kg) lower than the typical CO2e for that route. The difference in CO2e is approximately equivalent to a passenger’s flight from London (LGW) to Dublin (DUB) (typically 56 kg CO2e).

Sally Davey, CEO of Travalyst says: “When booking a trip, whether for work or with my family, I need the right information at the right time, be that about price or customer reviews. The same applies to the impact of my travel but that’s never been consistently available before – until now. Thanks to the work of Travalyst and our partners, travellers now have flight emissions estimates at their fingertips to help them make more informed decisions at the point when it matters most.”

By supporting travellers to book lower-emitting flights, in the long-term Travalyst hopes this will drive demand for more sustainable supply, encourage innovation, support corporations with their reduction targets, and help to guide policy. For instance, with such granular data comes the ability to see emissions at individual airline level, which could pave the way for airlines themselves to compete on reducing their climate impact, as well as price and service.

Sebnem Erzan, Global Head of Travel Sustainability Partnerships at Google says: “We want to help people better understand the environmental impact of their travel choices – no matter where they search for their next flight. Through our efforts with Travalyst and the Travel Impact Model, information on flight emissions is now more accessible and actionable for people around the world.”

Flying continues to be a major source of carbon emissions and is inherently unsustainable, regardless of travellers selecting lower-emitting flights. Alternative long-distance transportation methods, like rail, have a significantly smaller environmental impact but there are instances where flying is the only viable choice. Giving travellers access to clear, credible and consistent information about flight emissions enables them to make more informed decisions.

₁ The number that Travalyst has aggregated from its partners is estimated from the number of flight searches where the Travel Impact Model (TIM) emissions estimates were surfaced. It is aggregated from data collected between the launch date of the TIM by Google in October 2021 through April 2024. In this time the TIM was scaled through the Travalyst coalition and integrated into partner platforms.

₂ A majority of its partners that use the TIM to show flight emissions estimates.

₃ Research commissioned by Travalyst and carried out by OnePoll in August 2024. OnePoll surveyed 2,000 UK adults who have flown when travelling abroad.

₄ In January 2024, the TIM was expanded beyond CO2 emissions to account for all six Kyoto greenhouse gases. As part of this model update, TIM outputs were relabeled from CO2 to CO2 equivalent (CO2e), and TIM calculations began including lifecycle emissions associated with the production and transportation of aircraft fuel – with the aim of accounting for the full climate impacts of aviation over time. Most platforms now show CO2e estimates with these lifecycle emissions, however some remain in the process of switching over.

₅ The TIM is a continuously improving model which takes many aspects of air travel into account when estimating emissions. Therefore the typical emissions for a flight are subject to change often. These estimates were correct at time of writing.

About Travalyst
Founded in 2019 by Prince Harry, The Duke of Sussex, Travalyst is a not-for-profit global coalition of some of the biggest brands in travel and technology: Amadeus, Booking.com, Expedia Group, Google, Mastercard, Sabre, Skyscanner, Travelport, Trip.com Group, Tripadvisor and Visa. The group represents a combined market cap of almost $3tn. Travalyst aims to bring sustainability information to the mainstream to help people make more informed travel choices.

About the TIM
The Travel Impact Model (TIM) is a transparent & continuously improving emissions estimation model that is built from public and licensable external datasets, based on the latest science. It aims to provide a single source of truth, as a public good, for calculating and presenting the climate impact of individual flight trips to passengers. The model combines flight origin and destination, aircraft type, cabin class and seat configuration, load factors and average aircraft utilisation to estimate CO2e emissions for each flight (per seat/passenger). The methodology output is free and available publicly via an API. Find out more at https://travelimpactmodel.org/

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