CSR Reporting in the Airline Industry - An Analysis of the Development of Airlines’ CSR Reporting

Abstract: This thesis aims to track the development of CSR and sustainability reporting in the airline industry. The emphasis is set only on the reporting practices and not on the companies’ CSR and sustainability activities per se. To analyse the development, a qualitative content analysis with a longitudinal-comparative research design was adopted. This thesis uses an inductive approach, discussing potential reasons for certain trends and developments. The aspects to be considered in the analysis were determined based on general qualitative characteristics of accounting reports, based on the IASB and GRI frameworks. The empirical material consists of sustainability, environmental and annual reports that were available on the airlines’ websites. The sample contains 20 airlines, 12 network, six low-cost and two cargo airlines. The primary focus was to include airlines from the most significant aviation markets. One of the major results of the thesis is that the awareness of sustainability topics among airlines started to receive attention especially during the last decade. Even though airlines seem to have or still put efforts into making their own reports comparable, comparability across different carriers’ reports and the presented measures is not yet achieved and is not expected to do so in the near future. Other observations include the increased use of the GRI framework and the use of assurance for sustainability related information.