Assessing the impact of litigation on an airline’s climate discourse: the case of Fossielvrij NL versus KLM

Project Description

Tourism, aviation, and climate change are topics that have been widely researched. In addition,
climate litigation is on the rise with an increasing number of cases and more attention from
scientific research. However, previous studies were particularly quantitative and more
elaborated qualitative research was lacking. Therefore, in contrast to earlier studies, this thesis
had the objective to conduct an in-depth analysis of the impact of a litigation case on an airline’s
climate discourse. To do so, annual reports, litigation documents, and news articles were
analysed to find the discourse and its evolution during and after a lawsuit. The case analysed
was one in which Dutch foundation Fossielvrij NL was taking KLM Royal Dutch Airlines to
court over its advertising statements about sustainability related to the Fly Responsibly
campaign. Results showed that KLMs climate discourse during this period was focused on
redirecting responsibility to others while pretending the airline was doing as much as possible
to become more environmental friendly. Therefore, the ‘responsibility pretext discourse’ had
been identified which covers KLMs growth objective. Critique during the case does influence
the advertising and communications of KLM around sustainability and leads to more
transparency from the airline. After the decision in the case, KLM did not react substantively.
It can be concluded that climate litigation is something KLM did not take into account and
made the company realize that transparency and clarity is important in making statements about
sustainability. Overall, it is indicated that the aviation industry is dealing with a shifting
environment which leads to implications as companies are under scrutiny when it comes to
communication about climate change.

Author: K. Boot (2024)

Image Reference:
(LC Redactie, 2022)