In recent years, international communities have paid more attention to the environmental impact of travel, especially aviation. If we assess the environmental damage inflicted, the aviation industry might appear to be a convenient scapegoat: pre-crisis numbers confirm that aviation only accounts for ~2% of all human-induced CO2 emissions, and ~12% of CO2 emissions from all transport sources (compared to 74% from road transport).
However, the industry is one of the fastest growing sources of emissions: global aviation CO2 emissions are rising beyond any expectations (70% faster than what UN’s International Civil Aviation Organization has predicted), and under business as usual, commercial aviation’s CO2 footprint would triple by 2050.
Environmental “guilt”
Pressured by regulators, airlines are increasingly adopting social and environmental measures with two clear aims: to reduce and to offset emissions. While investing in newer and more fuel-efficient aircraft can reduce emissions by up to 25%, it is not enough to make climate-neutral flying a reality. Therefore, airlines like Lufthansa Group are investing massively in other initiatives such as Sustainable Aviation Fuel (biofuel produced using raw materials and processes) and power-to-liquid technology (producing fuel using power from renewable sources, water and CO2).
On the other hand, the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) agreed on a resolution (CORSIA) that aims to align CO2 emissions to 2020 levels by obliging airlines to offset the surge in their emissions after 2020. To abide by this resolution, airlines are required to monitor emissions and offset them by investing in environmental projects around the world that would reduce future emissions, from renewable energy research to planting trees.
Reconnecting with the customer
Legislation is not the only form of pressure the airlines are countering. Eco-conscious travellers feel guilty flying when unnecessary, so much so that the term flygskam (flight shame) was coined to embody their discomfort. The trend towards flight shaming shows the weight of civil response to activities causing environmental damage, as many opt to purchase rail tickets over flights.
In this context, airlines see an opportunity to engage with customers in a more rewarding way. This could be achieved through clear and consistent communication on the carbon offsetting activities airlines are undertaking. Eco-centric communications could enhance the airline’s image, and perhaps induce a sense of loyalty and support from the customer. Moreover, airlines should provide rich and flexible carbon offset products, which aim at collecting contributions from environmentally conscious customers. Here, both personalisation and equitable adjustable pricing (based on numerous criteria) are key to a successful offering.
Takeaway
Facing tremendous pressure from regulators and the international community, airlines have four clear options for both transforming their image and changing their environmental impact:
- Investment in more fuel-efficient aircraft, whilst avoiding aircraft modifications which could increase fuel consumption (e.g. satellite internet antennas which increase the drag)
- Increase use of biofuels, taking for example Lufthansa Group’s Sustainable Aviation Fuel initiative
- Provide better carbon offset products
- Improve communication and visibility of measures taken to reduce emissions
In future posts, we’ll be diving deeper into the four options airlines have for alleviating concerns and reducing environmental impact. Follow us on Linkedin for more updates to our Navigating Crises with Radical Customer Empathy blog series.
The average airline web portals is not broken. It loads, it sells tickets. It technically does what it's supposed to do.
And yet, the experience feels tiring.
You notice it when you try to do something simple. Change a seat. Find your gate. Understand what happens if a flight is delayed. Suddenly you are scanning long pages, decoding airline terminology, clicking back and forth just to stay oriented.
The problem is not with the features, It is effort effort required in getting from A to B.
Airline portals still expect travellers to think like systems. To understand menus, categories, fare families, ancillaries, rules. But travellers arrive with something much simpler. Intent.
They want to get something done and get on with their journey.
This article posits that airline web portals should stop behaving like navigation systems and start acting as intent-aware decision environments. When UX is designed to reduce effort, adapt to context, and quietly support travellers at each stage of the journey, portals become calmer to use, easier to trust, and far more effective for airlines.
The basics still matter more than airlines think
Before talking about AI or personalisation, it is worth being honest about the fundamentals.
You can see that accessibility standards aren’t yet being applied and portals aren’t optimised for mobile, which results in performance drops. Navigation feels heavier than it needs to be. Search often works, but only if you already know what to ask and how the airline expects you to ask it.
These are not exciting topics, but they shape everything that comes after. If a portal is slow, confusing, or inaccessible, no amount of intelligence layered on top will fix the experience.
At Branchspace, we see this repeatedly. Airlines want to move faster, personalise more, experiment. But the UX foundation is not always ready to support that ambition.
Where portals lose traveller trust
The biggest UX issues are rarely dramatic, they are subtle and cumulative:
- A vague error message that offers no next step
- A long paragraph that hides the one thing the traveller needs to know
- Three different words for the same concept depending on where you are in the journey
- A mobile page that technically works but feels endless
In isolation these are small instances, but they compound to create friction for a user. And friction erodes confidence.
Travellers begin to hesitate, scan more carefully, and spend extra effort just trying to stay oriented. They stop trusting that the portal will help them when things go wrong. Good UX goes beyond delight, it is about reassurance.
Decision-making is the real job of UX
Every airline portal is a decision-making environment:
- Choose a flight
- Choose a fare
- Choose a seat
- Decide whether to rebook or wait
The role of UX is not to present all options equally. It is to reduce the mental work required to choose well.
That is where simple principles matter more than flashy ideas: clear visual hierarchy, familiar patterns, plain language, and progressive disclosure.
When these are done properly, travellers stop analysing the interface and start moving confidently through it.
This is also where intent-led thinking becomes powerful. When portals are designed around tasks rather than pages, complexity begins to fall away naturally.
What changes when you design for intent
When you stop designing for navigation and start designing for intent, the portal behaves differently:
- Shift the focus to intent and the portal begins to respond in new ways
- Search leads the experience rather than sitting in the background
- Logged-in travellers with an upcoming trip see what they can do next, instead of being asked to explore
This is the direction we have been taking with platforms like Triplake by allowing the portal to respond to context, trip stage, loyalty status and behaviour.
Where AI actually helps and where it should stay quiet
AI has a role in airline UX, but it works best when it stays in the background rather than taking centre stage. The strongest AI-driven experiences are often the ones you barely notice, because the interface feels simpler and the path forward feels clearer.
That might mean routing a traveller straight to the right outcome based on a natural language query, or surfacing the most relevant rebooking option when a disruption occurs. In other moments, it is about removing repetition altogether, using known preferences to spare travellers from making the same choices again and again.
At its best, AI offers clarity, supports decisions without trying to make them on the traveller’s behalf. People still want to feel in control of their journey, they just do not want to work so hard to get there.
The portal is becoming a living interface
The most interesting shift we are seeing has very little to do with technology and everything to do with behaviour. Airline portals are gradually moving away from being static websites and towards adaptive interfaces that respond to where a traveller is in their journey.
Before the trip, the portal helps you prepare. On the day of travel, it shifts into a supportive role, surfacing the information that matters most in the moment. Afterwards, it follows up, closing the loop rather than simply ending the experience.
Making this work demands modular design systems, flexible platforms, and teams that think beyond individual pages and flows. It is not an easy change, but it is both achievable and increasingly necessary.
