October 13th, 2023, Lesley Simeon
Earlier this year, a number of airlines took steps to bolster their focus on sustainability. While some created funds aimed at cutting down emissions from air travel, others launched platforms to help flyers be more mindful of their carbon footprint when travelling. Nonetheless, do consumers think carriers are doing enough to minimize their impact on the environment?
A recent YouGov survey asked consumers across 17 international markets about which industries they think are doing enough or not enough to minimize their impact on the environment. Among all the industries listed in our survey, consumers are least likely to say airlines (17%) are doing enough with their environmentally friendly efforts. In fact, airlines lead (59%) when it comes to industries consumers think aren’t doing enough.
Hospitals/health services enjoy the most favorable view among consumers - nearly a third (31%) of them say this industry is doing enough to minimize its impact on the environment. Hotels (24%) and online retailers (23%) follow.
By country, what do consumers feel about airlines’ efforts to minimize their impact on the environment
Airlines are doing enough:
In the UAE, over two in five (41%) consumers feel airlines are doing enough to minimize their impact on the environment, and this market is followed by Hong Kong (31%) and Urban India (29%). The corresponding figure in the US is 17%.
YouGov data shows that consumers in our Asian markets are more likely than their European counterparts to say that carriers are doing enough to go green and minimize their impact on the environment. In Asia, at least a quarter of the consumers across markets in this region are of this opinion - the exception being Singapore (14%). In Europe, Germany leads (16%). On the other hand, Italy and Britain (9% each) both report a single digit figure.
In the Nordics, similar proportions of consumers in Denmark (12%) and Sweden (15%) say airlines are doing enough to minimize their impact on the environment.
Airlines aren’t doing enough
As for consumers who feel airlines are not doing enough to minimize their impact on the environment, France (72%) is in the lead with Spain (70%) following at a close second. Poland accounts for the lowest proportion of consumers in Europe (53%) who feel the same.
In Asia - where consumers are less likely than Europeans to feel airlines are not doing enough - Indonesia leads (58%).
More Britons than American consumers say airlines aren’t doing enough. Nearly half of all consumers in the US (49%) say airlines are not doing enough to tackle their impact on the environment, while in Britain, more than two-thirds of all consumers (67%) share this sentiment. Interestingly, over a third of consumers (34%) in the US are actually not sure about whether airlines are doing enough or not.
Finally in the Nordics, almost three in five consumers in Sweden (58%) and Denmark (55%) feels airlines are not doing enough to minimize their environmental impact.
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Methodology: YouGov Surveys: Serviced provide quick survey results from nationally representative or targeted audiences in multiple markets. The data is based on surveys of adults aged 18+ years in 17 markets with sample sizes varying between 509 and 2003 for each market. All surveys were conducted online in July 2023. Data from each market uses a nationally representative sample apart from Mexico and India, which use urban representative samples, and Indonesia and Hong Kong, which use online representative samples. Learn more about YouGov Surveys: Serviced.
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