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Even as the global aviation and airline industry struggles to make profit amidst the ongoing global financial debacle, SAS Scandinavian Airlines, the largest airline in Northern Europe and the national carrier of Denmark, Norway and Sweden, which flies a thrice-weekly Dubai-Copenhagen service during the winter season, remains steadfast in its environmental goals.
For many years, the SAS Group has been working systematically for sustainable development as part of its overarching strategy. The renewed strategic approach, Core SAS, and the structural changes it involves, will further improve the chances for successful environmental work, and for reaching the environmental goals that SAS has set for 2008–2011.
“At SAS, sustainability is an integral part of our strategy for future growth. Our view and aims regarding sustainability issues are not affected by transitory events, and are given the same high priority as before,” said Albert Henschel, SAS Scandinavian Airlines General Manager for the UAE.
“Our initiatives to save fuel, green approaches, weight reduction and all other efforts in this regard are aimed at strengthening SAS financially and in the market as all these have beneficial effects on both costs and the environment.”
It is no coincidence that SAS Scandinavian Airlines is the national carrier of Denmark, Norway and Sweden, where in 2008, Norway and Sweden were ranked 2nd and 3rd respectively by the 2008 Environmental Performance Index (EPI) produced by a team of environmental experts at Yale University and Columbia University. And in May 2009, Copenhagen in Denmark, hosted international business leaders, politicians and experts as they gathered together for the World Business Summit on Climate Change.
Apart from being the Official Airline and Greening Partner of the summit, SAS hosted the Aviation Session in cooperation with the International Air Transport Association (IATA), where top leaders from the industry discussed a number of recommendations to politicians for discussion amongst world leaders during the United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP 15) held in December.
“As airline operations account for 95% of the SAS Group’s environmental impact, most of which is caused by the consumption of non-renewable energy, primarily fossil fuels, we are fully committed and supportive of IATA’s vision of having zero emissions in the air transport industry by 2050,” added Henschel.
“SAS principal strategic targets include 20% lower emissions by 2020 including traffic growth, and 50% lower emissions per unit produced by 2020.”
Theodore is the Co-Founder and Managing Editor of TravelDailyNews Media Network; his responsibilities include business development and planning for TravelDailyNews long-term opportunities.
