According to a Skift study, “Estimating passenger emissions from airfares supports equitable climate action”, allocating passenger aircraft emissions using airfares rather than travel class gives a more accurate idea of individual contributions to carbon emissions than the other way round.
Using data from the Airline Origin Survey database, researchers at the UK’s University College London say including airfares in calculations shows which passengers contribute the most revenue to the airline operating the aircraft.
While premium seats are more expensive than those in economy, the researchers found many late bookings in economy, often made for business trips by high-income travellers, cost as much, or more than premium seats.
Lead author Dr Stijn van Ewijk said: “The paper shows we should follow the money when calculating emissions of individual travellers, as it is revenue that decides whether an airline can operate a plane or not.
“Someone who has paid twice as much as a fellow traveller contributes twice as much to the revenue of the airline and should be allocated twice the emissions. The seat size of each travel class, which is currently used to allocate emissions, is only a rough approximation of how much passengers pay.”
The study suggests that implementing tax proportionate to the price of the ticket could make the total costs of flying fairer. Passengers buying the most expensive tickets would pay the highest tax, encouraging them to seek alternatives. This could increase estimates of corporate emissions, as it allocates more to expensive late bookings.
