LONDON (13 April 2022): Travalyst, the not-for-profit sustainable travel organisation founded by Prince Harry, The Duke of Sussex, announced today that its coalition of six of the top brands in travel have aligned on a shared framework to collect and display flight emissions data, meaning that when consumers want to book a flight with lower emissions, they will be able to easily find the information they need. The framework consists of a set of shared principles and preferred methodology for estimating carbon emissions from air travel, agreed and committed to by all Travalyst travel distribution partners.
As a neutral, pre-competitive coalition, Travalyst brings together some of the biggest brands in travel globally to leverage the power of partnership to transform the net positive impact of travel and tourism. Moving towards industry-wide alignment in the decarbonisation of aviation is an important part of this transformation.
Skyscanner and Google will be the first two coalition Partners to implement the Travalyst aviation sustainability framework across their platforms for consumers. Founding Partner Skyscanner has been a leader in emissions reporting since the launch of their Greener Choices model in 2019 and has been instrumental in the development of the framework.
To support the coalition’s goal of greater industry adoption, Google has published a Travel Impact Model for emissions estimates that further details the Travalyst framework. Going forward, Google will act as a technology provider and make it possible later this year for more platforms to easily display carbon estimates using the Travel Impact Model, with minimal technical requirements.
Sally Davey, CEO, Travalyst said: “We know that one of the barriers to consumers making better choices is a lack of visibility and overly complicated information, leading to confusion. By delivering clear and consistent tools for collecting and reporting airline data, we are helping travellers and the industry to make more informed – and lower emitting – air travel choices. It is hugely significant that our partners have reached agreement on this framework and will be using the same data across all of their platforms.”
The focus of the new model is on bringing more immediate transparency around carbon emissions for flights. To better inform travellers, this collaboration will evolve over time to reflect further factors impacting sustainable aviation.
All of Travalyst’s travel distribution partners have confirmed their intention to adopt and implement the model from 2022 onwards, with Skyscanner and Google being the first to integrate it fully into their platforms.