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

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.

KEYWORDS:

• Flight to Nowhere
• neutralization
• climate change
• frequent flying
• air travel
• cognitive dissonance
• Fiji

Acknowledgements

The authors sincerely thank Adi Elenoa Draunidalo for her assistance in transcribing the interviews.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).