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The aviation industry has never been short on ambition, but it’s often struggled to explain its environmental footprint without sounding like it’s reading from a brochure. Now, three major players, SITA, Amadeus, and the Arab Air Carriers’ Organisation (AACO), say they’re ready to bring long-overdue clarity to how individual flights affect the atmosphere.

Their collaboration aims to replace guesswork with verifiable numbers, letting passengers and airlines see in plain terms what each flight costs in greenhouse gas emissions. In a sector where trust is as essential as ticket sales, it’s a shift that feels not only timely but necessary.

A push to replace assumptions with evidence

The plan pairs two heavyweight technologies.
On one side sits SITA Eco Mission, which pulls directly from real aircraft performance and operational data the sort of detail usually known only to engineers and fleet analysts. On the other hand is Amadeus’ Travel Impact Suite, a platform already familiar to many travel agencies and corporate travel buyers for its ability to collate emissions figures from multiple recognised sources.

Together, they’re attempting something the industry has talked about for years but struggled to deliver: reliable, flight-specific emissions numbers that don’t wobble depending on which website you check.

AACO Secretary General Abdul Wahab Teffaha welcomed the initiative, suggesting the industry had waited long enough.

“We are proud that Amadeus and SITA have joined forces to deliver solutions that help the aviation industry and its customers optimize operational costs while engaging passengers on sustainability through accurate, data-driven transparency.”

It’s the sort of understated endorsement you hear from someone who’s seen more than enough glossy sustainability claims.

Trust begins with truth—and actual data.

SITA for Aircraft CEO Yann Cabaret didn’t bother with corporate poetry. He kept it simple:

“Trust between passengers and airlines begins with transparency.”

It’s a point airlines rarely state so bluntly. Passengers have spent years trying to compare emissions data that never quite lined up. One airline says one thing, a booking site says another, and somewhere in the middle sits a traveller wondering which version of reality is closer to the truth.

By combining SITA’s complex operational data with Amadeus’ wide-reaching distribution channels, the partners hope to give both travellers and airlines confidence in the numbers. Not estimates. Not rounded figures. Actual data shaped by real flight behaviour.

Cabaret added that verifying information is the first step to credible climate reporting. He’s right. It’s hard to convince anyone to offset emissions when the underlying numbers look like they’ve been written in pencil.

Making sustainability something you can actually measure

For Amadeus, the collaboration is about bringing verified insights into an open ecosystem rather than locking them behind proprietary walls.
As Maher Koubaa, Executive Vice President for the company’s Travel Unit, put it:

“By exploring how verified operational insights can flow into our open, partner-agnostic solution, Travel Impact Suite, we aim to help airlines, travel agencies, corporations, and travelers better understand the environmental impact of each flight.”

In other words, if the industry wants passengers to take sustainability seriously, it must start by providing them with something concrete to work with.

That push is becoming particularly important as airlines navigate increasingly complex environmental regulations. From Europe’s expanding emissions trading rules to national reporting standards and the rising cost of carbon offsets, the financial and reputational stakes have never been higher.

Clearer information helps airlines justify investments in newer aircraft, optimised flight paths and, over time, sustainable aviation fuel. It also lets travellers choose flights with lower carbon footprints without feeling like they’re rolling the dice.

A shift driven by passengers as much as policy.

A decade ago, emissions transparency was a niche concern. Today, passengers expect it not as a marketing flourish but as a fundamental element of the booking process. People aren’t necessarily cancelling their holidays, but they increasingly want to understand the impact of getting there.

This collaboration reflects that shift in public sentiment. It’s not framed as a moral crusade or a grand reimagining of aviation’s future. Instead, it’s a practical step, the sort of effort the industry can build on rather than talk about at conferences.

Linking operational data with consumer-facing tools may not sound glamorous, but it’s the kind of foundation the industry has lacked. It turns sustainability from an abstract ideal into something measurable and comparable.

And for an industry so often caught between economic necessity and environmental pressure, measurable is a very welcome word.

A more transparent future for the frequent flyer

If all goes to plan, travellers may soon find emissions information alongside flight times and prices, presented plainly rather than buried in footnotes. That transparency won’t satisfy every critic, but it will give passengers something they’ve long been denied: clarity.

For an industry built on the promise of taking people places, offering a clearer view of what happens along the way seems only fair.

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