Abstract
This study estimates factors of importance for the carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2e) emissions generated by travellers flying for different reasons based on representative Austrian micro data for the period 2014–2016. The annual average number of flights taken by adults vary between 0.1 (visiting friends) and 0.8 (going on holiday), and the amount of CO2e emissions generated by each return flight is approximately 1100 kg. This leads to a total of 6 million tonnes CO2e emissions per year. Results of the Pseudo Poisson Maximum Likelihood estimations reveal that the amount of CO2e emissions created is related to socio-demographic, locational and seasonal factors, although mainly for the largest group of travellers: the holiday makers. In this group, individuals with university degrees, young persons (16–24 years) and capital city residents generate the largest amounts of emissions, as opposed to persons with children and large households. Residents of the capital region each quarter cause 64 kg more CO2e emissions than inhabitants of rural areas, persons with university degrees create 74 kg larger emissions than those without degrees and young adults instigate 90 kg more emissions than middle-aged persons. CO2e emissions of holiday flights are highest in the first quarter of the year. The importance of education is also pronounced for CO2e emissions related to business travel, as is gender.
Highlights
Services related to tourism, including air transportation, are increasingly questioned because of their presumptive negative impact on global carbon emissions
The aim of this study is to gain more insights into aspects of importance for the CO2 emissions generated by air travellers with different reasons for their trips
This study provides novel empirical evidence on aspects of importance for the carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2e) emissions caused by different groups of air travellers, based on a large representative dataset on travel behaviour by Austrian residents for the period 2014–2016
Summary
Services related to tourism, including air transportation, are increasingly questioned because of their presumptive negative impact on global carbon emissions. Air travel is considered to be the most environmentally damaging form of transportation with respect to climate change (Gössling and Upham 2009; Gössling and Humpe 2020) and Responsible editor: Philippe Garrigues. The aim of this study is to gain more insights into aspects of importance for the CO2 emissions generated by air travellers with different reasons for their trips. Socio-demographic, locational and seasonal factors are employed to explain the amount of emissions at the individual level. The analysis uses a representative micro data set of 17,400 observations on Austrian residents that travel at least once per quarter for reasons of businesses, holidaying or visiting friends and relatives during the period 2014–2016. The Pseudo Poisson Maximum Likelihood estimator (PPML) is employed to estimate the relationships.
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