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Flights emissions data

Introduction

At Skyscanner, we believe it is an important part of our role as a traveller-facing platform to provide the information that travellers need to be able to make more sustainable travel choices. A key part of this is aviation emissions information, which we also provide to you, our partners, through the B2B API.

This emissions data is provided through the Travel Impact Model (TIM), and sourced and distributed by one or more Coalition Partners of Travalyst, a non-profit organisation working with its Coalition Partners to bring about the systemic changes required to enable more sustainable travel, starting with creating open-source frameworks for the industry. TIM is the first for aviation, and with it we hope to help make carbon emissions reporting more standardised and transparent throughout the industry. You can learn more about this data and about the work in aviation here.

The model takes into account factors like the origin and destination of the flight, the aircraft type, and the cabin class and seat configuration to calculate a per-passenger lifecycle emissions figure. Those figures are then compared against a typical flight for that route. A “typical” flight is a median, calculated as the middle value amongst possible emissions per route, which considers all available dates and flights. You can find out more about the methodology and general principles of the model for lifecycle emissions reporting here.

This model will continue to be developed and updated regularly, and progress can be followed via the above links. Some of this progress will include work to align with industry bodies, such as IATA and EASA.

Flights emissions data

Flight Lifecycle Emissions data (sustainabilityData) is now available through the API!

Flight lifecycle emissions are calculated as CO2e per passenger and compared to a “typical” flight on that route. A lower emissions flight is one that is at least 6% lower than a typical flight on that route, and will show as isEcoContender, with the delta % shown as ecoContenderDelta.

Because the emissions provided represent well-to-wake emissions, it is most accurate to use “CO2e” to refer to them. CO2e is short for CO2 equivalent, and is a measure used to compare the emissions from Kyoto Gases (GHG) on the basis of their global-warming potential (GWP), by converting amounts of other gases to the equivalent amount of carbon dioxide with the same global warming potential (source). When referring to emissions calculations, it is also advised to use “lifecycle emissions” as well-to-wake emissions are CO2e emissions, as they include more greenhouse gases than just CO2.

You are free to use this data under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike CC BY-SA 4.0 open source license. This requires that you give credit to its source in a reasonable way that is visible to users on your platform. This could be as simple as a reference to Travalyst and a link on an information page (like what we’ve done at Skyscanner here).

Emissions data is accessible through an opt-in parameter includeSustainabilityData that can be sent when creating a search session.

Best Practices

When implementing flight emissions into your front-end, we ask that you not copy our UI like-for-like as we regularly update it in line with our own learnings and traveller needs, which are often unique to Skyscanner. With that said, we are happy to offer guidance on best practice based on our experience.

As general principles, we recommend being:

  • Transparent: Make things clear and factual for travellers
  • Representative: Ensure that any necessary context is provided and that the bigger picture story (e.g. that flights have a long way to go before they are truly “sustainable”) is not hidden
  • Verifiable: Everything said should be substantiated by the data
  • Helpful: Information about sustainability should be presented in a way that helps travellers to understand it without confusing them or misleading them
CategorySuggestionExample
Content/DesignMake it clear that you are comparing flights to flights, and not to any other modes of transportInstead of “this is a lower emissions transport option,” say “this flight has lower emissions than a typical flight on this route”
Content/DesignWhere appropriate, be transparent with travellers about the reality of sustainable travelIt may be helpful to acknowledge that overall, flying is still a carbon-intensive transport option and that in some cases, a train might be a lower carbon option
Content/DesignProvide opportunities for a traveller to learn more about emissions in order to build trust in the dataYou could provide a tool tip with more information and/or link to an internal page with more detail and a link to Travalyst
Content/DesignEnsure that your design does not use any imagery that could be falsely imply that a flight is more sustainable than it is in realityWe’d recommend including the colour “green” only as a highlighting colour, if at all, and imagery like leaves very sparingly, as using these images in abundance could be interpreted as greenwashing (flights are not “green”!)
LanguageUse transparent and factual languageDon’t say “This is a green flight”; instead you could say, “This flight emits x% less carbon than a typical flight on this route”
LanguageUse comparative (rather than superlative or absolute) languageInstead of “this is a low emission flight”, say “this is a lower emission flight,” since the absolute is rarely true (for this example, no flight is a low emissions flight)
LanguageWhen referencing this data, use the most accurate possible terms to refer to each pieceInstead of saying “emissions label,” you can simply say “flight emissions information” - a “label” implies subjectivity and could have regulatory implications.
Likewise, we recommend referring to the reference emissions as “typical” emissions, e.g. “This flight has X% lower emissions than a typical flight on this route.”
RegulatoryEnsure your product complies with the latest legislation in any jurisdictions in which you operateThe UK’s Green Claims Code is one robust example of outlining expectations for speaking about sustainability of a product or service
RegulatoryOnly make claims that can be substantiated by dataDo not say that a flight is “eco-friendly” or “sustainable” as none of these are actually evidentially true given current technology for commercial aircraft