Case Study: a leading airlines company improves climate risk credit assessment with S&P Global Climate Credit Analytics

How Different Responses to Climate Change Impact a Companys Creditworthiness

S&P Global Market Intelligence worked with a leading airlines company that needed to understand how different climate transition paths could affect its creditworthiness. The airline industry faces difficult decarbonization challenges, tight margins, and exposure to carbon pricing and changing demand, making it important to assess how delayed or immediate climate action could influence financial risk.

Using Climate Credit Analytics, S&P Global Market Intelligence and Oliver Wyman translated climate scenarios into airline-specific financial drivers such as fuel costs, emissions, capital spending, and operational changes. The analysis showed that early action on emissions can lower carbon tax costs and support a steadier credit profile over time, while delayed action creates a more disorderly transition and weakens creditworthiness, with outcomes varying by fleet, routes, and ability to pass through costs.