The results contained in this report show that policies that
aim to reduce emissions by managing demand, through
raising the price of air travel, are likely to fail. Tourists
are shown to be very sensitive to prices for air travel on
competing airlines or to alternative destinations. However,
at the national or supra-national level these choices
cancel each other out and the overall market is much less
sensitive to the cost of air travel. It is economic growth and
incomes that are found to have been the key drivers of air
travel demand, and those drivers are expected to remain
particularly strong in the developing markets of Asia.
Decoupling emissions from travel growth needs to focus
not on demand management but on mechanisms to bring
about emission reduction measures from technology,
infrastructure and operations.