About True Prices

What happens if you include the hidden costs of flying in the price of an airline ticket? You get the ‘true price’. This is the current price of a flight ticket plus the costs for preventing or repairing the damage caused by the flight. Here you can read what the true cost of flying is and why it is important to know.

What are True Prices?

The price you pay for a product or service only tells half the story. Many products have hidden costs that are not on the receipt. Think of environmental damage, CO₂ emissions, poor working conditions, water and air pollution, or the consequences for our health. The costs for that damage are real and are currently paid by society, future generations, and the climate. For example, with tax money used to combat flooding due to climate change. With true prices, we show what something would cost if you also paid for the damage to nature, climate, and health.

True Cost of Flying

In this example, you see the price you currently pay for a return flight (fictional ticket price) and the amount that needs to be added to pay for damage caused by the same flight (climate change and air pollution). If we were to calculate true prices for flying, a return trip within Europe would be about €100 more expensive. For long-haul flights, this could increase to €700 or more. This truly shows how much impact flying has.

Why True Prices?

By making the true price of products and services visible, we can make better choices for people and the planet. If transport companies were to charge the true price, the train would suddenly be much cheaper than the airplane. This is because a train causes much less damage to nature and health than an airplane.

Does everything become more expensive with true prices?

If you include the true costs for the climate and society, sustainable choices actually become more attractive. For example, a plant-based burger causes less damage than a meat burger. In a system with true prices, that plant-based burger would therefore be cheaper. This encourages companies to make their products cleaner and more sustainable. The less damage, the lower the price. With true prices, smart and sustainable solutions automatically become the best choice.

Are you willing to pay the true price for your flight ticket?

I pay the true price

Questions and answers

The foundation uses the True Price methodology from the Impact Institute. This calculates not only the market price of a plane ticket, but also the hidden environmental costs of transportation by:

  • Climate change (emissions of CO₂ and other greenhouse gases)
  • Air pollution (NOₓ, particulate matter, sulfur oxides, VOCs)

The calculation is based on emission data per passenger kilometer from the CE Delft report STREAM passenger transport 2014 and official True Price monetization factors. These convert environmental damage into euros, creating a transparent estimate of what a flight really costs the environment and society. Read the full report here.

The calculation only looks at the direct damage to the environment caused by transport, such as emissions that cause climate change and air pollution. Effects caused by contrails, biodiversity loss, noise pollution, or the production of the aircraft themselves are not (yet) included in the calculation. As a result, the estimate is reliable, but not yet complete. We always state this honestly, so that everyone knows what the figures are based on.

Currently, airline tickets do not show what a flight really costs people and the planet. By visualizing these hidden costs, travelers and companies gain a better understanding of the consequences of their choices. For example, they can use this calculation to compare the true costs of flying with the true costs of the same journey by train or car.

In addition to CO₂, flying also releases emissions that cause additional warming, such as cloud formation by contrails (airplane stripes), nitrogen oxides (NOₓ), water vapor and aerosols.

Contrails can develop into cirrus clouds that mainly trap heat in the atmosphere at night. NOₓ emissions at high altitudes stimulate ozone formation and break down methane; the net effect is strongly warming in the short term.

Because these effects are complex and depend on all kinds of changing circumstances (altitude, humidity, latitude), it is difficult to accurately calculate them into one fixed price.

When calculating the true price, CO₂ and other greenhouse gases that can be well quantified are mapped. Effects such as contrails and other forms of non-CO₂ emissions are not included, because the scientific uncertainty there is much greater. If we were to include these effects, the difference between the current price and the true price would be considerably higher, but also less precise and less reliable.

In addition, the current calculation is based on seats in economy class. In premium economy and business class, the true costs per seat are considerably higher, because more space is taken up per passenger and emissions per person therefore increase.