Ethical-decision making of ‘Flights to Nowhere’ passengers in the COVID-19 and climate change era

Stephen Pratt and Denis Tolkach

Current Issues in Tourism, 2023, vol. 26, issue 5, 735-751

Abstract: With international travel halting as a result of the outbreak of COVID-19, several airlines sought to offer Flights to Nowhere as a way to generate revenue and keep their aircrafts flight-ready. Flights to Nowhere are sightseeing flights that start and finish at the same airport without landing elsewhere. These flights have been heavily criticized for creating unnecessary greenhouse gas emissions. This research explores the ethical decision-making process and the subsequent rationalization of taking Flights to Nowhere. Using cognitive dissonance theory and neutralization techniques, we analyse in-depth interviews with passengers that have recently taken a Flight to Nowhere. Passengers did not immediately make the connection between Flights to Nowhere and climate change but on reflection, they justified these flights using a range of neutralization techniques including an appeal to higher loyalties, denial of injury, and justification by comparison.

Date: 2023
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/13683500.2022.2038090 (text/html)
Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:taf:rcitxx:v:26:y:2023:i:5:p:735-751

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.tandfonline.com/pricing/journal/rcit20

DOI: 10.1080/13683500.2022.2038090

Access Statistics for this article

Current Issues in Tourism is currently edited by Jennifer Tunstall

More articles in Current Issues in Tourism from Taylor & Francis Journals
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Chris Longhurst ().