Willingness to pay for sustainable aviation depends on ticket price, greenhouse gas reductions and gender

There has been a plethora of research into sustainable transportation, with quite a few research studies coming out in the past few years examining sustainable aviation. Much of this research focuses on developing new types of green products, including biofuels, eco-friendly airports, recycled building materials, water reuse projects, and other sustainable practices. Fewer studies have focused on consumer willingness to pay for new sustainable aviation projects. No study that we know of has examined how much extra consumers would be willing to pay as a function of the sustainability benefit. Across two studies, 1192 participants were presented with a hypothetical scenario about flying in a commercial airplane that was designed to provide a 10–50% reduction (in 10% increments) in greenhouse gases. Participants were then asked about their willingness to pay an additional 5%, 10% or 15% increase in ticket price for each of the reduction increments. In general, more reductions in greenhouse gases increased willingness to pay the additional ticket price; however, this was limited in the 15% ticket price condition, particularly for long-haul flights. In addition, women were generally more willing to pay the additional ticket price compared to men; however, this was more pronounced for shorter domestic flights compared to long-haul flights. Airlines can expect consumers to accept a small increase in ticket prices if they are convinced that the airplane flight emits fewer greenhouse gases. We discuss the implications of these findings. •The purpose of this study was to examine the threshold passengers are willing to pay towards the reduction of greenhouse emissions from commercial aircraft.•As greenhouse gases were reduced, individuals were willing to pay more for the ticket price.•Participants would not be willing to pay certain ticket price increases unless there was a significant reduction in greenhouse gases.•Participants were less willing to pay for long-haul international flights.•There were gender differences in willingness to pay.