Airlines should prioritise storytelling, not statements, on sustainability.

Focus on storytelling

United Airlines has hired a new CTO. His name is Oscar. You may be familiar with Oscar if you’ve watched Sesame Street growing up. Yes, it’s that Oscar, who loves trash. And CTO stands for Chief Trash Officer. United Airlines is leveraging Oscar to narrate how the airline turns regular trash into sustainable aviation fuel. While it is a complex process in partnership with Fulcrum Energy, what stands out is the airline’s effort to focus on simple storytelling to get its message across to a wide audience.?

Sustainable travel initiatives and technologies are inherently interesting. But they are too complex to weave stories around them. Few airlines do a good job communicating sustainability initiatives that resonate with multiple stakeholders without attracting backlash from climate activists and authorities. United Airlines’ focus on storytelling shows us a way forward.

United is investing heavily in a future where planes can be fueled by things like waste by turning it into sustainable aviation fuel. The airline has launched a commendable marketing effort to educate the public, media and other stakeholders in the simplest way possible. The airline has released multiple videos explaining its approach towards a more sustainable future in simple terms. The videos say nothing about carbon-neutral flying. Instead, they talk about turning trash into sustainable aviation fuel, which is a fact, not a claim. Then the videos say the airline is “investing more in sustainable aviation fuel production than any other airline in the world.” All undisputable facts.

A dedicated landing page explains the multiple initiatives and even the mascot, Oscar. While in the past we have seen airlines use a mascot as a brand ambassador, like Rico at Air New Zealand, no other airline has engaged this method to promote sustainability like United Airlines.?

When promoting sustainability efforts, most airlines stop at billboards with a single line of copy with an overreaching claim or a vision statement about the future. But this strategy can backfire.

One-liners no longer work

Lufthansa recently ran an advertisement in the UK with the words, “Connecting the world, protecting its future”, which included a link to the airline's website, where people could find out more about the airline's sustainability efforts. But the UK's ad regulator has wrapped the airline on the knuckles for misleading customers.

The UK regulator claims the airline's ad "made an absolute promise that their services caused no harm to the environment." While it is debatable whether "protecting the environment" is an absolute claim, in hindsight, Lufthansa was setting itself up for a backlash.

No context was provided in the advertisement or the copy regarding how Lufthansa protects the environment. Whether it is being done today or in the future. Why would the airline leave it open to interpretation? Why not share details that build trust in the brand rather than raise questions? After all, Lufthansa is investing in sustainable aviation fuel, offers carbon offsetting for customers and has rolled out a special fare category called Green Fares. But the advertisement needs to mention these. The airline has included some of these details on the website it hoped customers would visit.

Lufthansa's sustainability website talks about how it will be "flying with sunlight, " telling us that a "unique Sun-to-Liquid procedure uses concentrated sunlight to produce carbon-neutral kerosene."

But instead of telling us the story of 'flying with sunlight" - what is it, how is it made, what difference it makes - the airline issued a vague feel-good advertising campaign. The time for these broad-brush green statements is now over. They can and will be challenged. Understandably, not all airlines will have the resources and support for detailed storytelling like United Airlines does. What can they do? Delta Air Lines shows an alternative that works.

Radical Transparency

Delta’s Chief Sustainability Officer Pam Fletcher has outlined the company’s strategy for achieving net zero emissions and more sustainable travel by 2050, including scaling the sustainable fuel market, innovating for the future fleet, addressing single-use plastics and encouraging net-zero supply chains. This information is provided on a dedicated page on the airline’s website.?

For a journalist or a customer, the page details how the airline eliminated 4.9 million pounds of single-use plastics in 2022 and plans to scale up to 35% sustainable aviation usage by 2035, up from 10% in 2030. These efforts are also showcased in a dedicated space built at the airline’s headquarters, The Delta Sustainable Skies Lab. When launching the lab, the airline stated that the goal of the innovation lab is to accelerate research, design and testing for a more sustainable future of air travel. The airline makes its sustainability efforts accessible in various ways instead of making bold claims.

Marketing and Communications teams must think differently about how they talk about an airline's sustainability efforts. The old mantras of keeping copywriting short and simple need to be ditched in favour of authentic storytelling. They will need to think about long-form podcasts and videos rather than six-word statements that communicate little.

A strong focus on storytelling coupled with radical transparency should be the priority if airlines are the build trust in an era where sustainability becomes increasingly important for investors, customers and the media.

I have detailed how to win in the era of sustainability in my “6X+S Airline Brand Model” whitepaper, which presents a new framework for airlines to build lasting brands in the age of sustainability.?Download the full report here.

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This article was first published in Flightglobal's Airline Business magazine in April 2023.

Shashank Nigam is the CEO of SimpliFlying and the host of the Sustainability In The Air podcast, which is also the title of his upcoming book on sustainable aviation.