The influence of strategic airline alliances in passenger transportation on carbon intensity

International aviation is growing rapidly and held responsible to contribute to about 2.5% of the global anthropogenic CO2 emissions. In answer to the increasing public and political awareness of aviation’s influence on Climate Change, from 2012 the European Union aims to include air traffic on their territory into the existing EU Emission Trading Scheme. Beside the various measures airlines can take to improve carbon intensity of their activities, joint collaboration in a global strategic alliance offers airlines an opportunity in passenger transportation to cope better with the planned regulation. In this paper we analyze the influence of a strategic alliance membership on determinants of carbon intensity in passenger transportation by using a unique data sample of the years 2004–2008. We find that alliance members on average had a higher utilization rate than non-aligned airlines, but their older average fleet age indicates that they did not take full advantage of the potentials offered through common aircraft investment activities. With regards to the planned Emissions Trading Scheme we show that European carriers on average had a better carbon intensity than Non-European airlines, so that competitive disadvantages for European airlines might be less than expected, if their carbon intensity maintains on this level.