Tom lives in Sydney, and regards travel as a human right, hopping on airplanes the way that most of us use buses. He works as an executive in the energy industry. 

Tom has long been a loyal customer of a specific international airline, where he focuses on amassing as many air miles as possible; this, along with a generous corporate travel policy, allows him to travel in great comfort and style. He currently holds Sapphire status, but if things continue to go well, he feels that the coveted Diamond status, the crème de la crème of airline rewards, is within reach. You may have seen Tom swanning into airport lounges, usually arriving several hours before a flight to squeeze out every last drop of pleasure. Wherever he goes, Tom swipes his airline-branded credit card, amassing more miles with every purchase. He even takes ‘mileage runs’, flights where he doesn’t even leave the destination airport on arrival but simply turns around and takes a return flight home, just to earn extra miles when he needs to maintain or increase his loyalty status.

Tom loves ‘turning left for luxury’ when he enters an aircraft. This gives him a real sense of achievement, and yes, he admits secretly, superiority. 

If Tom won the lottery, he would definitely own a private jet, or at least a share of one. He has been looking recently at some exclusive holidays that are being offered by National Geographic that use a large private jet to visit multiple destinations. If his annual bonus is big enough, he plans to treat himself to one of their ‘critically endangered’ species tours. He is also watching Boom, the new supersonic startup, with great interest. Breaking the speed barrier – now that would make great dinner party conversation!

Claude is the headmaster of an international school in Abu Dhabi. Originally from Paris, his family and friends are always at least one long-haul flight away. Claude enjoys referring to himself as a ‘citizen of the world.’ 

Claude’s favourite aspect of his job is the frequent opportunities that arise to visit other schools and attend conferences. The school board encourages these trips, believing they raise the school’s profile. But if Claude is honest, these trips are usually more of a ‘jolly’ than strictly work-related. He also makes the most of the long school holidays to escape the desert heat and visit new places. 

Claude’s position entitles him to always fly in business class, and his flights are included in his generous expat employment package. He can’t quite imagine how he could ever go back to flying economy again. The pampering he receives on the flight is sometimes the best part of his whole trip.

However, Claude’s personal flights are not the main reason for his enormous bumprint. Although he doesn’t see it in these terms, Claude is a ‘flight pusher’. This is because he encourages his staff and pupils to fly extensively. ‘After all,’ he reminds them regularly, ‘we are an international school; it’s expected of us’. There are annual geography, history and language trips, all the sports teams travel regularly to compete abroad, the Model UN goes to Washington DC every spring, the annual art department trip alternates between Paris and New York, and the kids love volunteering at their sister school in Nepal. There is also a ski trip and a dive trip every year, although these are getting harder to plan as there is less snow everywhere and the coral reefs are becoming less colourful and exciting. Altogether, these trips add up to literally thousands of flights every year.

The school prides itself on having a “Green Team”, and the effects of the climate crisis upon both humans and the natural world are woven throughout the curriculum. His older students are taught about renewable energy in science and extreme weather impacts in geography. But unfortunately, Claude and his team are overlooking the most important lesson of all: leading by example.

Larry lives in Los Angeles, and his fiancé, Lisa, lives in New York City. Neither of them flew much growing up, and they are making up for it now in this exciting age of low-cost flying. They met in college and have been navigating a long-distance relationship for several years. Now that Larry only has to be in the office two days a week, it’s easier for them to meet up for long weekends and take advantage of the cheaper weekday flights.

When choosing flights, Larry & Lisa always take the cheapest ones available. Sometimes that means long complicated routes and nights spent sleeping on airport floors, ‘But isn’t that all part of the fun?’ 

Last year, Larry surprised Lisa with a ‘mystery vacation.’ They had great fun building up the pre-travel suspense on social media, only learning of their destination once they were on the aircraft. They were a bit disappointed to find themselves back in Phoenix, again. ‘Man, was it hot!’

Larry & Lisa are serious Swifties. They will go anywhere to see Taylor in concert. Lisbon and Singapore have been their highlights so far. ‘It actually can save us money to fly abroad to see Taylor Swift; concert tickets are so much cheaper outside the US!’

Larry & Lisa are getting married in Las Vegas and honeymooning in Japan, somewhere that has been on their ‘country ticking’ list for ages. Instead of a big wedding, they have asked everyone to make cash donations to their travel fund. Larry’s bachelor weekend is going to be in Austin, while Lisa and her girlfriends are still debating between the Florida Keys or New Orleans.

Tanya is a working mother of four, living in London. Her job, working for the marketing department of a hotel chain, requires her to fly to their different resorts four times a year. 

Tanya used to love these resort visits, but not so much anymore. Although getting a break from her daily routine and staying in a nice hotel is appreciated, being away from her kids involves complicated pre-trip planning. Also, Tanya is a nervous flyer these days as she was recently involved in a severe turbulence incident somewhere over the South China Sea. Apparently, she has read that these incidents are worsening as the climate crisis disrupts predictable weather patterns.

When booking a flight for work, she always picks the most direct, with baggage included. She is limited to only flying with her company’s airline partners. The company’s travel policy permits a business class seat if the flight time is over six hours. Still, a recent sustainability (and cost-saving) initiative introduced a cash bonus for employees willing to fly economy. Tanya always selects that option, saving the extra money to take her kids to Disneyland in America and other fun places every year.

Tanya finds it far too uncomfortable to think for long about the environmental harm caused by air travel, although her kids seem to be talking about it more and more. She admits to them that she is ‘green on the ground but not in the air.’ She tells them she makes up for all the flying because she drives an electric car and often shops for local produce at the farmer’s market.

Hana is a Japanese American graduate student living in Tokyo. She is increasingly concerned about the climate crisis and is flying far less than she used to. 

Her academic research takes her all over Southeast Asia, but often she can attend meetings and conferences virtually. When she must travel, she prefers to use the ferry, train, and bus options. Although this is not always the quickest or cheapest option, she explained her motivation to reduce her air travel to her university, and they have been surprisingly supportive.

Visiting her mother, who lives in a New York senior citizen’s community, is an annual obligation that can’t be avoided. Hana sometimes used to treat herself to a business class upgrade on these trips since it is such a long flight, but she doesn’t do that anymore. Her discomfort about the environmental cost started to outweigh the comfort of the seat.

These days Hana packs lightly, consults a carbon calculator when determining the best ticket to buy, and pays a little extra to compensate for some of the emissions. She has carefully researched carbon offsets and has found a trusted project to support.

Last summer Hana turned down an invitation to fly to Bali for a holiday and instead chose a ‘staycation’, taking the bullet train to explore Mount Fuji. Her verdict, “It was awesome! It was just a shame that there was no snow.”

Pritam is from India. He came to the UK as a student and now works as an environmental journalist. It is a field he is passionate about as he has seen first-hand the worsening droughts and pollution caused by the climate crisis back in Rajasthan.

Pritam eagerly reads and writes about developments in sustainable air travel. While he clearly understands the size of the challenge facing the aviation industry, he really hopes that a silver bullet will be found one day. He would like his next flight to be powered by electricity or hydrogen, but for now, Pritam is signed up to the ‘Flight Free UK challenge.’

Pritam started a campaign at work, asking his newspaper to provide support and encouragement for employees who choose slower travel, by land or sea, for their holidays. This was successful, and his company now offers sustainable travel leave, extra paid ‘journey days’ for low-carbon travel.

He recently became aware that so-called ‘sustainable’ aviation fuel is being made out of tallow, the waste fat of animals from slaughterhouses, and blended into the jet fuel at source. This will be problematic for Pritam as a vegan and a Hindu to overcome if, for some important family reason, he needs to fly.