KLM asks passengers to 'fly responsibly'

'Today we know aviation comes with another big responsibility – to make sure our children have a planet to explore, as well'

As talk of "flygskam", or flight shame, reaches fever pitch, KLM has unveiled a new marketing campaign asking passengers to “fly responsibly”.

The Dutch airline published an open letter from CEO and President Pieter Elbers asking both passengers and the industry to “work together” to “truly create a sustainable future for aviation”.

Moves suggested by Elbers include encouraging airlines to use KLM's carbon offset programme, as well as joining a biofuel programme. KLM also invites passengers to “make responsible decisions about flying”.

Between two and three per cent of all manmade carbon emissions in the world come from aviation. Each year, around 4.6 billion journeys are made by air.

“Flying – after all these years the feeling is still magical. For many of us it changed our world forever,” Elbers says in his letter.

He adds: “When we started 100 years ago, our major concern was your safety. Little did we know about the impact we would have on the environment. Today we know aviation comes with another big responsibility – to make sure our children have a planet to explore, as well.”

Mr Elbers said KLM would share its “best practices and tools” around sustainability with its competitors, and is asking the aviation industry to share their knowledge in turn.

The campaign is supported by a video, which asks air travellers: “Do you always have to meet face to face?”, ”could you take the train instead?” and “could you contribute by compensating your CO2 emissions or packing light?”

It concedes that “we all have to fly every now and again. But next time, think about flying responsibly.”

The video finishes by saying: “No actual flights were taken in the making of this film.”