Goals shape most every corporate
decision, so we must be clear about our goals for traveling. The most obvious
travel goal is to earn a positive payback on the traveler’s time, the cost of
the trip, and the harm done to the climate. In short, the goal is to take
justifiable trips.

Let’s assume for a moment that our
main goal is to reduce airline-related emissions from our travel programs. We
must now re-think our cabin travel policy, as this is the single-most important
factor in a travel program’s ability to help achieve lower carbon emissions.

The traditional assumption is
that flying in economy is least harmful for the climate. I promoted this belief
back in 2007 when I led the development of TRX’s ground-breaking airline carbon
emission model. The TRX model allocated three times as much CO2 to a business
class seat compared to an economy seat because the floor space of the business
class seat was three times bigger.

Business class seats do take up
about three times the floor space of the typical economy seat. But it is not
floor space that matters, it is weight. It is the marginal weight of the seats,
the passengers and their luggage that matters. Why? Because the plane’s
operating empty weight, cargo weight and fuel load are the same, excluding the
weight of the passengers, their luggage and their seats. The key is recognizing
that a business class seat displaces not one but three to four economy seats,
depending on the cabin configurations.

Imagine an airline’s decision to
make room for one more business class seat on a flight by removing three
economy seats. The weight of the business class seat and its one passenger with
luggage is about half the weight of the three economy seats and their three
passengers with luggage. This means the flight needs marginally less fuel, not
more, so the flight now emits marginally less CO2 than it would if the flight
had been configured and sold with three economy seats. The same fuel-reduction
conclusion holds for first class seats.

The much bigger benefit of flying
business class, however, is simple supply-and-demand economics. Business class
fares are much more expensive than economy fares. The higher the fare, the
fewer number of trips that can be taken from the travel budget. So long as
business class fares are more than three times the price of an economy fare, our
travel budgets will produce significantly fewer emissions than if our budgets
were used on economy fares.

Let’s come back to our goals for
traveling. On the climate front, it must be to reduce overall emissions, not
emissions per passenger. An economy class policy does not reduce overall
emissions; a business class policy does.

If our primary goal is to enable
more successful trips, protect traveler health, safety and well-being, and
strengthen the recruiting and retention of travelers, then a business class cabin
policy is the obvious choice on this front.

The days of trying to squeeze the
greatest number of trips out of a travel budget are gone. We face new
constraints and expectations on climate concerns, travel budgets and traveler
well-being. Lower-value trips can’t be justified. We need our travelers to
succeed on their higher-value justifiable trips. A business class policy for
all travelers scores goals on all of today’s most important fronts.