Sustainability

Our mission

Make flight-free travel mainstream

Our goals

  • Reduce the climate impact of travel

  • Combat over tourism and boost local economies

  • Increase tourist spending with sustainable providers

Our values

  • Making flight-free travel mainstream is a journey we approach with the optimism and openness needed to learn and grow.

    • We enjoy ourselves, celebrate where we are and we strive to do better

    • We know sustainability is a journey

    • We advocate for collective, not individual, impact

  • Trust in each other is the foundation of our team. We share insights widely, are grounded in openness, and welcome peer reviews.

    • We trust (but verify)

    • We are trustworthy

    • We are trusted experts

  • We listen to, respect, amplify and support all stakeholders. Our product is for everyone.

    • Byway is for everyone

    • We value and actively hire for diversity and empathy

    • We do not accept discrimination, hate or harassment

    • We respect local contexts and listen to and uplift expert and local insights

Why go flight-free?

Emissions from flying stand to triple by 2050 if demand for air travel continues to grow.

Rail travel accounts for just 14g of CO2 per passenger mile, dwarfed by the 285g generated by air travel (Energy Saving Trust, 2018). You could get the train from London to Edinburgh and back five times and your carbon footprint would still be lower than if you flew there.

2023/24 impact report

Overview of our impact 2023/24

This year, we’re thrilled that our customers have saved 757 tonnes of carbon by opting for flight-free trips. That’s three times more than last year, both because of customer growth (2,305 more passengers this year) and because we’ve attracted more frequent fliers than last year: 40% of our customers this year, compared to 27% last year.

Expanding our advertising efforts to attract travellers who’d otherwise have flown, strategic partnerships with mainstream providers such as First Choice, and enabling more customers to buy trips online, have all contributed to this shift. It’s fantastic to see flight-free holidays appealing to more mainstream audiences and we’re looking forward to supporting the industry’s shift towards sustainable travel further.

We’ve been expanding our sustainable travel activism and deepening links with our community, learning lots from your feedback and engagement and really enjoying the discovery process (especially over coffee and croissants!). Each step forward in our shared journey brings us closer to a world where sustainable, overland journeys are the norm.

Thank you for being part of the flight-free movement!

Cat Jones, founder and CEO

1539

Flight-free Byway trips run

3390

Customers

757

tonnes of CO2 saved
(that’s 4545 trees!)

 80%

Of accommodation costs went to locally-owned businesses

10

New regions launched this year

 40%

of customers would have flown if they hadn’t taken a Byway trip (vs 27% last year)

Byway is a B Corporation

We're committed to using our business and product as a force for good in the world, and as a certified B Corporation we join the likes of Patagonia and over 2,700 other companies across the globe who stand behind their greater purpose.

By supporting us as a B Corp, you are saying ‘yes’ to sustainable travel, socially responsible tourism and supporting local economies, and you’re casting your vote for the kind of travel we need for a cleaner, fairer and more equitable world. Thank you.