US: United Airlines creates a green fuel fund - What do flyers think of green energy?

American carrier, United Airlines, has created a $100 million fund, towards cutting down emissions from air travel. Backed by several aerospace and financial companies, the fund aims at investing in startups, who in turn aim at producing sustainable aviation fuel. While the fund will start at more than $100 million from United Airlines as well as partners like Air Canada and Boeing Co., it will be capped at $500 million. Airlines that participate are expected to sign clean-fuel supply agreements with the startups they choose to back. 

What do United Airlines’ flyers think about matters concerning the environment and sustainability? 

According to YouGov Profiles - which covers demographic, psychographic, attitudinal and behavioral consumer metrics - 71% of United Airlines’ current customers and 64% of the general US population agree with the statement that “green energy is the future.”

But would consumers be willing to pay more if the costs of sustainable aviation fuel were passed along to them?

A majority, 61%, of the airline’s consumers agree they “don’t mind paying more for products that are good for the environment” and a little over half of them (54%) agree they are “willing to pay more for sustainable energy.”

But 54% of them are also of the opinion that “it costs too much to be green all the time.” Almost half of United Airlines customers (49%) claim not to “care if it is ‘green’ energy, as long as it is cheap.”

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Methodology: YouGov Profiles is based on continuously collected data and rolling surveys, rather than from a single limited questionnaire. Profiles data for the US is nationally representative and weighted by age, gender, education, region, and race. Learn more about Profiles. 

Photo by Henry Siismets on Unsplash