La Pegasus Chairthe economics and management of air transport, which is part of Montpellier Business School, on Tuesday presented its new report on the acceptability of green innovations in the airline industry. And for an event organised at Roissy during a month of May that is not the most studious, the audience gathered at the Maison de l'environnement et du développement durable at Paris CDG could attest to a strong public interest in the issue. Yes, but... The results of thesurvey of a thousand French people tend to point to a comfortable margin for progress, and an educational imperative to ensure that ad hoc technological levers are understood, accepted and financed. four types of innovation The new technologies in question, selected by the authors of the study - new designs (e.g. flying wings), new types of engine (open rotors), new types of fuel (SAF) or new forms of energy (hydrogen) - are all too often unknown to the general public. " Nobody knows what SAF outside this room "ironically Paul ChiambarettoDirector of the Pegasus Chair, ahead of Tuesday's round table. " What strikes me is that only 29% of respondents are aware of sustainable aviation fuels.confirms Amélie Lummaux, Director of Sustainable Development and Public Affairs for the ADP Group. It strikes me that this is an innovation that is already technologically available. (...) We have regulatory obligations, we are already at a certain level of maturity. And yet awareness of this decarbonisation lever is extremely low. I think this is both a call for us to communicate better. It's also no doubt indicative of the fact that this communication is being driven by the air transport industry, and that for the energy companies, this transition is not yet part of their fundamental strategic focus. ".
In addition to this lack of knowledge of new technologies, the Chaire Pégase report points to the low level of involvement of the French public in the link between aerial and sustainable development. Of course, the respondents seem to be prepared to pay more to fly with a company that would use these technological advances, to the tune of 15% additional per ticket on average. But reducing the number of flights is still too high a hurdle for some people. Especially for frequent travellersincluding business travellers. Among those surveyed who have flown more than 12 times in the last twelve months, more than a quarter of these frequent flyers (27%) are even planning to fly more in the next five years ! And 18% of these travellers expect to fly just as much. Nevertheless, a small majority of frequent flyers (54%) plan to reduce their air travel.
These figures can be compared with another point in the study: according to the Chaire Pégase, the flight shaming - This feeling of shame about flying, which is said to have emerged in recent years, affects only a small proportion of the population, at least in France. Only 12% of those surveyed felt this way. While 67% of French people reject it.
While the report published on Tuesday does not focus specifically on business customers, the round-table discussion that followed its presentation did provide some useful insights. Asked about the ability of business customers to pay more to have less impact, Paul Chiambaretto points out that " Studies show that when people travel for business reasons, they are less sensitive to price variations. So if the price goes up, it won't have as much impact on demand. However, the last few years have shown us that companies are paying more and more attention to their travellers' spending. ".
For his part, Vincent Etchebehere wants to be transparent: " Tomorrow's plane tickets will cost more "This is what Air France's Director of Sustainable Development and New Mobilities sums up. " Today, SAF costs airlines between three and five times more than paraffin. It is therefore strictly impossible for airlines to absorb these costs without asking their customers to contribute. ". Referring to the voluntary contribution options, Vincent Etchebehere agrees: " a small minority of our customers use this option, probably also because it's not visible enough, not understood enough: there's work to be done in terms of educating people about FAS. For our customers to buy FAS voluntarily, they need to understand what it is. We still have a lot of work to do ". Vincent Etchebehere adds: " there is also thevoluntary purchase by our corporate customers. These customers are increasingly aware of and interested in buying SAF from us via a specific BtoB offer. This enables them to reduce their Scope 3 emissions, i.e. indirect emissions that include emissions linked to business travel. This offer is still in its infancy. It's up to us to make our corporate customers more aware of what SAF is and how it can be integrated into their carbon accounting. ".
In addition to the efforts made by the airline industry and the investment required, the players involved - in the broadest sense of the term - will clearly have to do a great deal of educational work. It is at this price - and with the corollary risk of being labelled "green washingrightly or wrongly - that the whole population will join them. The road to more sustainable aviation is long, and full of pitfalls.
