Aviation360 MEA

The national airline of Saudi Arabia, Saudi Arabian Airlines (SAUDIA), has announced that it will take part in the second The Sustainable Flight Challenge (TSFC), a global competition run by the SkyTeam alliance.

SAUDIA agrees to share its eco-friendly ideas and insights through this participation in order to lessen its environmental impact while alternative fuel sources are being investigated.
Flights must fall within a certain distance and be a part of the airlines’ current networks in order to be able to take on the challenge. AUDIA will perform three flights, a medium-haul flight on a B878-9 Dreamliner from Jeddah (JED) to/from Dubai (DXB) taking off on 18 May; a long-haul flight on a B878-9 Dreamliner from Jeddah (JED) to/from Kuala Lumpur (KUL) on 23 and 24 May; and a short-haul flight on a A320 from Jeddah (JED) to/from Riyadh (RUH) on 28 May.

All the way from on-the-ground operations to landing, innovations and best practice will be tested with the ultimate objective to implement those proving impactful and scalable on commercial and cargo flights.

Once flights are completed, airlines will submit their results which will be evaluated against a set of criteria by a diverse panel of aviation and sustainability experts from around the world, for each of the following awards:

• Lowest CO2 emissions
• Greatest CO2 reduction
• Lowest CO2 emissions ground operations
• Best in-flight waste management
• Best collaboration
• Best adoption
• Best Innovation

SAUDIA CEO, Captain Ibrahim Koshy, said: “At SAUDIA, we believe that preserving our planet is the greatest challenge humanity has ever faced, and we are taking serious actions to reduce our environmental impact. We constantly take part in promoting sustainable travel as we implement a variety of environment-friendly initiatives and we invest massively in fuel-efficient aircraft such as Boeing 787 Dreamliners, Electrical Vertical Take-off and Landing jets with Lilium, as well as the order of CFM International LEAP-1A engines to power our new fleet of 35 Airbus A321neo and 30 A320neo aircraft.”

“We are extremely proud to be part of an alliance, SkyTeam, who has always put sustainability at the heart of its strategy. This Challenge represents a great and necessary opportunity to collaborate with industry leaders and find impactful and viable solutions to reduce the sector’s carbon footprint,” Captain Koshy added.

SAUDIA hopes to help fast-track the fight against climate change thanks to this collaborative challenge led by SkyTeam. In last year’s edition, SAUDIA won the ‘best customer engagement’ and ‘best employee engagement’ awards. SAUDIA was also a finalist in three other categories: ‘greatest CO2 reduction medium-haul’, ‘lowest CO2 emissions ground-handling’ and ‘best sustainable innovation (in-flight)’.

Category winners will be announced later this year, where ideas, innovations and insights will be presented at a showcase event hosted by Delta Air Lines in Atlanta, USA.