Growing Air New Zealand’s carbon program over time

Air New Zealand is taking concrete steps to provide transparency about flight emissions to its customers. By partnering with Chooose, the airline has expanded its Voluntary Emissions Contribution program, helping individual, corporate, and cargo customers better understand the estimated carbon impact of their flights and then providing the option to support select verified carbon projects.

Since launching these initiatives, Air New Zealand has seen strong engagement from corporate, cargo, and retail customers.

Challenge: Expanding and scaling a carbon credits program

Before partnering with Chooose, Air New Zealand ran an in-house carbon credits program. The airline wanted to scale its offerings, expand its reach, and enhance its technology while maintaining an authentic Air New Zealand brand experience.

Air New Zealand faced several challenges in improving its carbon program:

• Sourcing and managing quality carbon credits at scale: The complicated and time-consuming process of Identifying, evaluating, procuring, and managing large quantities of carbon credits that met Air New Zealand’s requirements began to hinder program growth.
• Expanding the program beyond its existing scope: The in-house sustainability team struggled with resources to provide services to customer segments beyond individual travelers.
• Building advanced technical solutions for corporate and cargo customers: Developing relevant software solutions became a significant obstacle amid competing priorities and limited resources.

Solution: Building a technically advanced, multifaceted carbon credits program

Air New Zealand implemented a set of robust solutions to advance its carbon credits program for customers:

• Custom (and automated) emissions estimates: We improved the voluntary carbon credits program with an emissions calculator that leverages Air New Zealand’s specific data. Developed by Chooose using fleet-wide operational data and the IATA RP 1726 methodology, this tool uses proprietary flight data for Air New Zealand aircraft to provide specific emissions estimates for air travel and freight services. These estimates are seamlessly integrated into various customer-facing experiences, including direct booking on airnewzealand.com and white-labeled emissions platforms for corporate and cargo users.
• Custom carbon project portfolio : Our carbon experts worked closely with Air New Zealand to create a portfolio of carbon projects tailored to specific criteria, including project type, location, and certification. With the projects selected, Chooose then handles the end-to-end carbon credit management — enabling Air New Zealand to offer scalable solutions to its customers. The portfolio of projects is flexible, and positions the sustainability team to evolve the portfolio over time.
  
  Customers can opt in and contribute to these certified projects while increasing their awareness and understanding of their estimated carbon emissions.
• Tech-enabled enhancements: Advanced white-labeling and in-depth collaboration resulted in seamless, technically advanced integrations into key customer touchpoints. Together, we designed and customized digital solutions, incorporating features like single sign-on (SSO) capabilities, one-click sign-ups, and automated data pipelines via API — all of which enhance the customer experience. The team at Chooose efficiently developed and iterated on these requests, delivering a solution matched to Air New Zealand’s specifications.

"As we continue to connect Aotearoa (New Zealand) to the rest of the world, we remain acutely aware of the carbon emissions generated by air travel. We know many of our customers — whether individual, corporate, or cargo — are concerned about aviation’s emissions impact, and it’s critical for Air New Zealand to meet our customers where they are," says Kiri Hannifin, Chief Sustainability and Corporate Affairs Officer at Air New Zealand.

Results: Growing the Voluntary Emissions Contribution program

By partnering with Chooose, Air New Zealand has grown its carbon credits program to serve various audiences, including individual travelers, corporate clients, air cargo customers, and internal operations.

• Carbon credits program efficiency: The program has increased operational efficiency and provided easier management for the sustainability team.
• Customer engagement: Consumers are showing increasing interest in learning about their carbon footprints and purchasing carbon credits.
• Corporate and cargo participation: Over 150 corporate and cargo customers signed up at launch.

Air New Zealand is now equipped with the technology infrastructure to centrally manage its carbon credits program and expand its support of other options for customers if they choose to, such as insets like sustainable aviation fuel (SAF).

Conclusion: Laying a foundation for the future

This partnership demonstrates the airline’s desire to be transparent with customers around the emissions impacts of their flights. By embracing innovative technology and fostering collaboration across the value chain, Air New Zealand not only provides customers with tools to make more informed choices but also creates a viable pathway to helping scale options for customers in the future, such as the option to support sustainable aviation fuel.