Report: How Sustainability Can Strengthen Airline Brands
Our report looks at how airline sustainability can strengthen brand value and offer a significant competitive advantage.
Sustainability is a factor, even if consumers aren’t always willing to pay for it.
The right and wrong way to communicate your sustainability strategy
One of the biggest reports into sustainable consumer behaviour was released in October 2021 to coincide with the COP26 climate change conference in Glasgow.
It showed that: 63% of consumers say they have made some change to their consumption patterns due to environmental concerns, yet only a minority (34%) say they will pay more for sustainable products and services.
Not surprisingly, environmental concerns were most likely to influence consumer behaviour among millennials, and least likely among baby boomers.
Key Insights
Environmental impact is a key concern
Environmental concerns among the travelling public are real and growing.
Consumers aren’t yet willing to pay
Few consumers, and that includes airline passengers, will voluntarily pay some kind of environmental surcharge (via a voluntary carbon offset scheme). The expectation is that businesses should take care of sustainability.
Sustainability is a “pull” factor
Most importantly, airlines that push sustainability to the forefront are poised to strengthen their brand, and gain a significant competitive advantage.
A sustainability threat to airlines comes from the corporate sector
This is a trend we saw pre-Covid, where environmental groups are successfully putting sustainability on the agenda at shareholder meetings.
