Air travel is absolutely central to doing business in a globalized economy. Even as global companies increasingly use technology to stay in touch, the impact of face-to-face, personal interactions with colleagues, clients, suppliers and partners is essential to remaining productive and competitive.
The airline industry supports businesses' need to connect. More than 4.5 billion passenger journeys take place annually and many of these are for business purposes. In aggregate, the world's airlines provide a network of more than 22,000 city pairs with more than 125,000 daily flights.
With increasing scrutiny of the impact of flying on the climate, however, more business travelers and their companies recognize the importance of traveling sustainably. According to a recent Global Business Travel Association report, a majority of travel managers revealed they had been requested to find more sustainable travel practices. This momentum is even stronger in Europe, where seven in 10 travel managers said they believe it is important to empower travelers to make sustainable travel choices.
The International Air Transport Association, which represents some 290 airlines and 82 percent of global air traffic, supports sustainable choices in travel too. Ensuring the public can continue to travel—and that we all can enjoy the economic growth, connectivity and deeper relationships that come from it—is what motivates our members to rise to the climate challenge.
Aviation has been deeply engaged for more than a decade in helping to make air travel sustainable. Carbon emissions from the average journey are actually half what they were in 1990. Aviation also took the lead in developing, testing and certifying sustainable aviation fuels and over 215,000 commercial flights have taken off using SAF since 2011.
Since 2008, the industry—including airlines, airports, equipment manufacturers and air navigation services providers—has had a goal to address its 2 percent share of human-caused CO2 by capping net emissions from 2020 and cutting them in half by 2050, compared to 2005 levels. This aligns aviation with the objectives of the Paris agreement.
In 2016, nations of the world, working through the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), the specialized body of the United Nations devoted to civil aviation, agreed to the vision of carbon-neutral growth from 2020. The mechanism to achieve it is the Carbon Offset and Reduction Scheme for International Aviation (CORSIA).
At the 2019 ICAO Assembly, member nations reconfirmed their commitment to CORSIA. In addition, ICAO will now start looking at a long-term aspirational goal to cut emissions, so governments and industry will be aligned.
Achieving a 50 percent reduction in carbon emissions by 2050 will not be easy. First, we need to make sure that CORSIA is successful and not compromised by a patchwork of competing national and regional taxes and fees that raise the cost of air travel for businesses and airlines while doing little to actually help aviation become greener.
Second, we must get governments to adopt policies to help support mass production of SAF, which have the potential to cut aviation's carbon footprint by up to 80 percent. With 14 SAF production plants in operation, under construction or in the final stages of financing, this could make progress towards volumes reaching 2 percent of jet fuel use in 2025, which IATA believes will be the tipping point to drive mass implementation.
Because climate change will not be solved by any one industry, country or single initiative, the aviation industry encourages and values collaboration with everyone involved in the business of moving people around the world. Every part of the travel experience can be improved to reduce its carbon footprint, from transport to and from airports, to operations at airports, to air traffic management to the hotels, convention centers and event venues that host the world's business travelers.
Companies large and small are using their resources and networks of employees, partners, suppliers and customers to drive sustainability initiatives and reduce their carbon footprints. Aligning travel policies with a company's wider sustainability approach promotes efficiency and sustainability in both a company's own operations and throughout its supply chains.
Some innovative companies also are introducing internal carbon budgets to support carbon offset projects and initiatives. Taken together, they mean we continue to reduce our environmental impact while enabling hard-working individuals and businesses to feel confident in the choice to fly.
The aviation industry has broken down barriers and helped to spread the benefits of trade and economic growth for more than a century, making the world a more connected and prosperous place. From large companies operating across continents, to SMEs seeking new markets and investors, to the road warriors who tirelessly traverse the globe creating jobs and economic growth, flying is an essential part of life. Building on the aviation industry's history of innovation and track record of problem-solving, everyone involved in the business of flying can be confident that we are tackling our environmental impact. So we can fly the right way to solve the climate crisis.