Over the years, the consumption of airplane travels has increased, and the aviation industry is seen as one of the fastest growing sources for greenhouse gases. As a result, the climate debate has intensified and the phenomenon “flight-shame” has been introduced which has contributed to more environmental awareness. Despite this, consumers still choose to fly and therefore, the purpose of this study is to explore how the climate debate and the phenomenon “flight-shame” influence consumer behaviour in the aviation industry. Empirical data was collected through four focus groups and a total of 18 travellers participated in this study.

Based on the answers from the focus group, this study has found that factors such as consumer needs, values, and reference groups influence consumers’ decision to fly or not to fly differently depending on their travel motives. Moreover, the climate debate and “flight-shame” is also found to influence the consumer behaviour of some leisure travellers whereas they have mostly influenced consumer attitudes of business travellers.

This study contributes to a deeper understanding of the underlying factors which influence consumers’ decisions to fly or not to fly. Moreover, it highlights the media as an additional influence on consumer behaviour which to the best of our knowledge has not been explored before. Also, the study sheds light on the importance of green marketing communication by airlines. Lastly, limitations are discussed, and future research is suggested to extend and address the generalizability of the findings by a quantitative research.