Since 2008, a travel agent can know the CO2 emissions of a plane ticket versus another. With the increasing desire of travelers to reduce their carbon footprint, this data should be used as a selling point, but is this really the case?
Existing tools show CO2 emissions based on average data calculations, without taking into account, for example, the type of aircraft or of course the filling rate of one airline compared to another. Unfortunately, this results in an excessively smooth score, similar for each flight, which makes it impossible to use CO2 emissions as a criterion for choosing a flight ticket.
In addition, not all GDSs are able to provide this information in their shopping responses, which makes carbon footprint information available only once the PNR has been booked, unless external sources of calculation are used, which many players will not want to adopt, particularly because of the costs involved.
Earlier this year, Afidium created a tailor-made decision-making tool for Irwigoo, based on qualitative data that are defined by the company itself. This data includes the calculation of CO2 emissions, for which we have developed a calculation algorithm that takes into account all the important criteria for determining this value, including the type of equipment used by the carrier. The Irwigoo teams has then defined criteria with different weightings, which now allows its agents to use the carbon impact among other arguments to choose one company over another.
A positive action for the future of tourism, which is also based on the increasing willingness of travelers to reduce their impact on the environment as much as possible.
