Analysis of Sustainability Reporting Practices of the Global Airline Industry (original) (raw)
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An Analysis of Sustainability Reporting Practices of the Global Airline Industry
Proceedings of the 5th International Conference on Tourism Research 2022, 2022
Sustainability reporting (SR) has become a standard practice for many organisations worldwide. The purpose of this paper is to explore and develop our understanding of the global airline industry's SR practices. Content analysis was employed to map which reporting frameworks the global commercial airline industry has recently used to report their nonfinancial impacts. Additionally, comparisons were made in the application of SR between geographical regions. The results indicate that two-thirds of the global airline companies had not published sustainability reports online (reporting period 2019). The Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) was the most widely used reporting instrument from the five major non-financial reporting organisations' frameworks. Also, over two-thirds of the reports had used the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) as a reference framework or referenced SDGs in other ways. This paper provides one of the broadest overviews of global airline SR practices. It is expected that the results will be of interest to practitioners and scholars in aviation SR.
Administrative Sciences
The aviation industry is facing pressure from stakeholders to transform towards greater sustainability. From a managerial and marketing perspective, not only the actual implementation and achievements of sustainability measures, but also their communication to stakeholders is likely to be crucial—and in many cases even legally required. This research evaluates the scope of sustainability and corporate social responsibility (CSR) reporting of Europe’s five largest airline groups for or from the year 2019, just prior the COVID-19 crisis. For this, dedicated sustainability reports and non-financial statements of Air France-KLM, easyJet, International Airlines Group, Lufthansa Group and Ryanair are evaluated and compared in a qualitative content analysis, using the Standards of the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) as reference categories. The results indicate that the sustainability publications differ by airline business model, as the two low-cost carriers report less content in non-f...
Sustainability reporting in the airline industry: Current literature and future research avenues
Transportation Research Part D: Transport and Environment, 2022
Sustainability reporting (SR) allows organisations to communicate their non-financial impacts to stakeholders. It has also become a widespread business practice in aviation, a transport sector that contributes significantly to global warming. Academia has begun to examine SR in the context of airlines surprisingly late, and no comprehensive reviews of its respective developments have been made so far. Consequently, a systematic literature review was performed with an exclusive focus on airline SR to synthesise its associated scholarly research and distinguish the common concerns and gaps that have emerged from it. The analysed publications indicate that the industry has lacked a unified policy and common understanding of how to define and measure sustainability, which has led to inconsistent SR practices. This causes ambiguity between the real actions and promotional communication through which airlines may legitimise their operations. Academia and various airline stakeholders would benefit from more in-depth studies examining the stakeholder views and quality of disclosures, helping the industry improve its SR.
Sustainability Reporting in the Airline Industry: The Case of Turkish Airlines
Sustainability and Management: An International Perspective, 2017
The magnitude of global financial and economic crises in recent years have increased significantly and become almost unbearable, causing investors to lose confidence in the whole financial system. A wide range of internal and external factors can certainly influence the intensity of a financial crisis. Research papers however indicate that the recent crises since 1996 have been more damaging, in large part, due to the inability of economic sustainability by corporations predominantly caused by lack of transparency about economic, environmental, and social impacts. Therefore, we have conducted a research about the sustainability reporting in Turkish Airlines (THY), which happens to be the largest airline company in Turkey, as well as an important global player in the airline industry. The paper is organized around the results of this research and provides some implications for THY and also for the industry. Keywords: Corporate social responsibility (CSR), sustainability reporting, global reporting initiative (GRI), and Turkish Airlines JEL Classification: M10, M14, M16, M40, M48, N10, N20, O10, O20, Q2
Sustainability reporting in the aviation industry
Abdul Samad, 2022
In recent years academics and the general public are paying growing attention to companies’ sustainability disclosure. Various dimensions of sustainability are discussed in this thesis, as well as their incorporation into corporate reports and plans. This thesis focuses on the aviation industry. In a contrast to any other sector, this study is exclusively concerned with environmental elements of sustainability since the aviation business has become a part of those industries which are substantial influence on the environment on a worldwide scale. The purpose of this research is to discuss quality and level of disclosure in sustainability reports issued by companies of aviation sector and propose a possible framework for this assessment. To this aim, this study adopts the IIRC Framework and GRI Standards as the basis for sustainability disclosure assessment, particularly in relation to environment. Moreover, this study will also investigate the Environmental KPIs that are not being disclosed in sustainability reports according to the standards. This study will also suggest guidelines on how companies in the aviation industry can improve their quality disclosure. The result of this thesis clarifies that 40% of the companies have unsatisfactory quality disclosure for environmental aspect of GRI standards and non financial capital aspects of IIRC framework for sustainability; other 40% have satisfactory quality disclosure and the remaining 20% have good quality disclosure which means either most of the companies are not disclosing their complete data, or they are not following the GRI and IIRC standards or they have not made any strong sustainable policy to protect the environment. The aviation industry needs to grip the missing components in their environmental reports so that their quality disclosure will get improved also it will help to safe our environment and its nature. This means companies can use this research tool as their self-assessment tool to be more competitive in the market and to fulfil all the basic requirements.
An Analysis of Airline GRI and SDG Reporting
Management, Tourism and Smart Technologies. ICMTT 2023. Lecture Notes in Networks and Systems, 2024
This study aims to increase our understanding of the Global Reporting Initiative's (GRI) topic-specific disclosures and the sustainable development goals (SDGs) addressed in the global passenger airline industry's sustainability reporting (SR). Based on a quantitative content analysis of the industry's sustainability reports from the financial year 2019 (FY19), this study reveals that airlines focused more on reporting environmental issues, especially emissions, than economic or social dimensions, demonstrating this emission-intensive industry's responsiveness to stakeholders' information needs. However, a closer look at the reported impacts shows that many topic-specific disclosures and SDGs, which industry associations have not identified as relevant to the industry, were also mentioned across the reports. Moreover, the results indicated a broader use of SDGs in Asia-Pacific reports than in European. The results are expected to interest practitioners and academics in assessing and developing the industry's SR.
Journal of Sustainable Tourism, 2013
This paper examines corporate social responsibility (CSR) practices among the growing Low-Fares Airlines (LFAs) flying between mainland Europe and the UK. A mixed methods approach was employed combining a content analysis of 22 airlines' documentation with key-informant interviews with 11 airlines including three of the four market leading LFAs. The research discovered evidence that LFAs were aware of the need to act more responsibly but how far intentions resulted in action was difficult to establish. To date the examination of LFAs has relied heavily on secondary sources and perspectives external to the firm. The firms' own CSR-related texts do not represent a reliable basis for examining responsibility among LFAs; they have a high degree of fragmentation and variable quality. In-depth interviews showed that while there is more CSR activity than is made public, incomplete knowledge was a more significant problem than bias or spin. Very few LFAs had conducted a systemic audit of CSR-related activity. Integrative approaches are required to overcome the limitations of single methods, to contribute towards a fuller understanding of responsibility among LFAs, and to inform debate on whether it is necessary to regulate in order to encourage sustainable development in this high growth sector. 1. Introduction: sustainable development, aviation and responsibility An enduring issue over the past 20 years has been how far support for the principles of sustainable development has resulted in behavior change. On the supply-side, Sheldon and Park (2011) identified an 'importance-performance' gap. The need for more responsible business management has been acknowledged but not necessarily translated into action. A similar 'intention-behaviour gap' has emerged on the demandside (Barr et al, 2011). Many citizens adopt sustainable practices in their homes which reflect their intentions, but they are not reflected in their travel choices or behaviours. Such a duality has featured in discourse on low-fares airlines (LFAs) and their role in sustainable mobilities (Graham and Shaw 2008; Coles, Fenclova and Dinan 2011). Also called 'low cost carriers' or 'no frills airlines', LFAs-such as easyJet, Ryanair, Flybe and Air Berlin-practice lean production and cost reduction to offer cheaper tickets than their 'full service' competitors, typically former national or 'flag carriers' (Franke, 2004; Groβ and Schröder, 2007). One underlying and highly contested question has been the extent to which it is necessary for the state to regulate to ensure that acknowledgement of the importance of sustainable development features in LFA practice (ELFAA, 2004;
Sustainability reporting: An overview of the recent development
2021
This study aims to provide an extensive overview of the current state of sustainability reporting through the review studies on sustainability reports (SR) in the accounting literature for the period 2015–2020. A structured literature review (SLR) methodology is used to investigate how the SR literature develops and focuses. The study uses keywords such as “sustainability report” and “sustainability reporting” to identify studies that are relevant to a given topic. A total of 44 published studies were found. This study identifies the main directions of SR research in the 2015–2020 period and discusses several important aspects of research, namely methodology, research methods, and the theory used. To enrich the results, this study defines the scope, country of research, topics and sectors studied. The study provides insight into future SR research used by researchers to develop SR research. Several things are proposed that can be used as a guide for future SR research, such as susta...
Recent Trends in Sustainability Reporting: Literature Review and Implications for Future Research
2020
Sustainability reporting has become a topical issue in recent years as it is no longer enough to make claims about the sustainability level of companies, but it is also necessary to demonstrate their sustainability efforts. For this purpose, sustainability reporting has grown from a voluntary basis into a legal obligation for some organizations, which speaks in favor of the importance of sustainable business globally. This paper aims to provide a wider perspective and theoretical support for research on sustainability reporting. A literature review of 52 papers from the Web of Science database indicates the following eight aspects as a trend in the literature reviews of sustainability reporting: Assurance, Boards, Communication, Framework, Impact, Indicators, Materiality and Practices. The paper highlights problems and provides challenges related to sustainability reporting and research opportunities for exploring sustainability reporting in future studies.