One in seven globally would pay more for travel with lower carbon-footprint than airplanes

A new global study by Ipsos, carried out on behalf of the World Economic Forum, on the topic of air travel environmental impact, shows the following:

• One in seven global consumers (14%) would use a form of transportation with a lower carbon footprint than air travel even if it were less convenient or more expensive. Twice as many (29%) would do so if it were as convenient or no more expensive than flying.
• The global public is divided into three groups of similar sizes when it comes to trusting both the commitment and the ability of airlines to reduce their environmental impact: roughly 1/3 are fairly or very confident in them, 1/3 have little or no confidence in them, and 1/3 sit in the middle
• Frequent flyers are much more likely than less frequent ones to trust airlines’ commitment and ability to reduce their impact on the environment (about 3 in 5 do), but also to consider alternative forms of travel with a lower carbon footprint.

These are the findings of a 27-country Ipsos survey for the World Economic Forum conducted via Ipsos’s Global Advisor online survey platform between June 21 and July 5, 2019.

For this survey, Ipsos interviewed a total of 19,023 adults aged: 19-74 in South Korea; 18-74 in Canada, China (mainland), Malaysia, South Africa, Turkey, and the United States; and 16-74 in all other markets.

The sample consists of 1000+ individuals in each of Australia, Brazil, Canada, China (mainland), France, Germany, Great Britain, Italy, Japan, Spain, and the United States, and 500+ in each of Argentina, Belgium, Chile, Hungary, India, Malaysia, Mexico, Peru, Poland, Romania, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, South Korea, Sweden and Turkey. 

The survey data have been weighted so that each market’s sample composition best reflects the demographic profile of the adult population according to the market’s most recent census data. Data collected each month are also weighted to give each market an equal weight in the total “global” sample.

Online surveys can be taken as representative of the general  adult population under the age of 75 in Argentina, Australia, Belgium, Canada, France, Germany, Great Britain, Hungary, Italy, Japan, Poland, South Korea, Spain, Sweden, and the United States. Online samples in Brazil, Chile, China (mainland), India, Malaysia, Mexico, Peru, Romania, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa and Turkey are more urban, more educated and/or more affluent than the general population and the results should be viewed as reflecting the views of a more “connected” population