Travel agents using Sabre’s desktop software can now find data on different airlines’ carbon emissions when searching for flights.
The software was made to assist environmentally conscious travellers to make more informed decisions about which airlines support their values. Provided through Sabre’s partnership with Google, the data indicates which fights are the biggest polluters and which are more environmentally benign.
According to Sabre’s Corporate Responsibility Officer, Kristin Hays: “Integrating emissions data from Google’s Travel Impact Model is an important step in bringing sustainability information to the mainstream for corporate and leisure travellers.”
GetThere, Sabre’s booking tool which assists corporate employees in doing their own booking for corporate trips, will have the same data available later this year.
Although Sabre’s carbon emission data is available to offline travel agents, it provides back-end technology to online travel agencies through Advance Passenger Information. Although the data has not yet been integrated into this system, it is under consideration.
Through Google’s participation in the Prince Harry-founded Travalyst coalition, it is able to calculate and provide data on flights’ carbon emissions using the coalition’s Travel Impact Model.
Although Skyscanner, Trip.biz and Booking.com previously had access to this data, Sabre is the first company outside the coalition to access it. This follows Amadeus’s similar CHOOOSE-powered carbon emission database launched for travel agents last year.