The sustainable travel not-for-profit organisation set up by Prince Harry in 2019 has delivered emissions data in over 65 billion searches, it has been revealed.
Travalyst aggregates data from its partners that include travel selling giants trip.com Group, Booking.com, Expedia, Google, Skyscanner, Amadeus, Sabre and Travelport.
It was established to bring in clear, consistent and credible sustainability information to help the travelling public make more informed choices.
Sally Davey, Travalyst chief executive, said: “Travellers hold enormous influence in their collective purchasing decisions.
“Flight emissions estimates have been scaled across our coalition partners’ booking platforms, resulting in this information appearing in over 65 billion flight searches globally.
“By supporting travellers to book lower-emitting flights, in the long-term we hope this will drive demand for more sustainable supply, encourage innovation, support corporations with their reduction targets, and help to guide policy.”
The Travel Impact Model (TIM), which estimates lifecycle emissions for flights at the individual passenger level, was developed by Google and has been rolled out through the Travalyst coalition.
Platforms using TIM present flight emissions information at the time of booking, so travellers are able to choose a flight with an estimated lower-than-typical CO2e footprint.
Travellers can also sort flight search results by emissions, alongside standard filter options such as cost and arrival/departure time.
The TIM takes a variety of attributes into account including flight origin and destination, aircraft type, cabin class and seat configuration, load factors and average aircraft utilisation.
With such granular data comes the ability to see emissions at individual flight level, which could pave the way for airlines to compete on reducing their climate impact, as well as price and service.
Sebnem Erzan, global head of travel sustainability partnerships at Google, added: “We want to help people better understand the environmental impact of their travel choices – no matter where they search for their next flight.
“Through our efforts with Travalyst and the Travel Impact Model, information on flight emissions is now more accessible and actionable for people around the world.”