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21 September, 2023

Travelport collaborates with Google to reveal flight emission estimates

Clouds in the Shape of Footprints form the Condensation Trails of an Jet Airliner

Travelport, has announced the launch of transparent, enhanced carbon dioxide (CO2) emission estimates for flights on Travelport+.

The estimates will be calculated using the publicly accessible Travel Impact Model (TIM), which has been developed by Google in partnership with the Travalyst coalition.

This new feature is the first of Travelport’s wider product offering that is focused on helping agents, travel managers and travellers easily make more eco-conscious choices when planning and booking their trips.

“Agents, corporate and leisure travellers want to feel more confident in making better travel decisions that put environmental impact as a top priority,” chief product and technology officer, Travelport, Tom Kershaw, said.

“Agents and travellers are seeing different carbon emissions scores and rankings for the exact same flight options when searching them in different channels.

“As an industry, adopting a free, publicly accessible data framework will allow us all to be more transparent and consistent in the way travel options are displayed and scored based on factors like carbon emissions, environmental certifications, or waste initiatives.

“We’re committed to standardizing the information on the environmental impact of transportation and accommodation options and displaying it in a way that makes it easy for agents and customers to incorporate that information in their decisions.”

Travel retailers using Travelport can easily compare CO2 estimates generated by the TIM per flight, per passenger, across carriers, at the point of sale based on factors such as the type of aircraft, seat configuration, distance of the flight, load factors and more.

These enhanced TIM carbon emission estimates for air segments can be accessed via Smartpoint, Trip Quote and the Travelport API Suite in the Flight Service Information Display and In-Flight Search Response views.

The TIM was developed by Google, in partnership with the Travalyst coalition, an independent not-for-profit organization of which Travelport is a member.

“Travelport joined the Travalyst coalition in 2022 to help drive the standardization and scale of environmentally conscious travel information across travel platforms,” Kershaw continued.

“By adopting the Travel Impact Model and using this data methodology for flight emission estimates displayed on agents’ screens, we’re able to align with all of the major global travel platforms to provide more transparency and eliminate confusion with inconsistent rankings across platforms.”

(Featured Image: Clouds in the Shape of Footprints form the Condensation Trails of an Jet Airliner – iStock/JM_Image_Factory)

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