A survey on the leading factors impacting how Canadians choose an airline has found that we talk the talk about green concerns, but we don’t walk the walk.
In a survey conducted by online travel sales site FlightNetwork.com, 55.2% of the 752 Canadians polled indicated that the green programs of air carriers ‘were important to them.’ But when it came to what factors we take into consideration when choosing an airline, a miniscule 2.7% of respondents cited green programs.
A whopping, though not so surprising 82.4% named lowest prices as their top factor in choice of airline. The next most important factor was flight times/departure dates at 75.4%. Trailing far behind in third was customer service at 21.5%.
“During these difficult financial times, it’s understandable that financial concerns could outweigh environmental issues with well meaning Canadian consumers,” said Naman Budhdeo, CEO of FlightNetwork.com. “Consumers can still make a difference by choosing to fly with carriers like Air Canada that offer a carbon offset program, or putting some of the savings from discount air fares towards purchasing carbon offsets directly from organizations like zerofootprint.”
Additional questions revealed that for 65.7% of Canadians polled, green issues did not factor into their air carrier decision and 83.8% of Canadians who booked in the past year were unaware of the green programs that their airline had in place.
