IATA and Travalyst’s strategic collaboration between airlines and travel tech sector
On 7 December, The International Air Transport Association (IATA) and Travalyst announced their collaboration with a view to providing consumers “consistent, accurate, and widely available calculation of their carbon footprint from air travel.”
This represents a significant opportunity for the decarbonisation of the sector as a whole by connecting key players in the travel industry. Travalyst, founded by Prince Harry, The Duke of Sussex is a coalition of nine of the world’s leading travel and tech companies including Amadeus, Booking.com, Expedia Group, Google, Skyscanner, Travelport, Trip.com Group, Tripadvisor and Visa. Meanwhile, IATA represents around 300 airlines comprising 83 per-cent of global air traffic.
Sally Davey, CEO Travalyst said:
“This is the first time that airlines and the travel technology sector have come together in this way. As such it is a milestone moment in the decarbonisation of the sector. In the face of the climate emergency, travellers want and need clear and unequivocal information about their carbon footprint on which to base travel decisions. Today we are bringing some of the leading travel brands around the table with the world’s leading airline association, with the aim of easily providing consumers with the most accurate carbon calculations.”
The collaboration of Travalyst and IATA seeks to provide travellers with accurate, transparent, and consistent information on the carbon footprint of a journey. This will be calculated using the pair’s nuanced understanding of the traveller behaviour and data.
Willie Walsh, IATA’s Director General said:
“Consumers want to understand the environmental impact of their travels. Both Travalyst and IATA are continuously working to improve their methodologies by incorporating emerging knowledge of climate impacts. So we are working together to provide the consumer with easy access to consistent calculations of the environmental cost of their travel.”
Strategic collaboration within the industry is set to play a considerable role in reducing the total carbon emissions of the travel sector. Connecting key travel and technology companies with airlines at this scale is an exciting development in the industry’s decarbonisation journey.
Article by Jess Brownlow
