SAUDIA Participates in SkyTeam’s Sustainable Flight Challenge 2023 in Joint Effort to Make Aviation Cleaner

Aleqtsad

Saudi Arabian Airlines (SAUDIA), the national flag carrier of Saudi Arabia,announced its participation in the second edition of The Sustainable Flight Challenge (TSFC), organized by the SkyTeam alliance globally.

Through this participation, SAUDIA commits to sharing its sustainable innovations and insights which help reduce itsenvironmental impact while alternative fuel sources are being researched.

To be able to undertake the challenge, flights must form part of the airlines’ existing networks and fall within a specified distance. SAUDIA will perform three flights, a medium-haul flight on a B878-9 Dreamliner from Jeddah (JED) to/fromDubai (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:

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, whereideas, innovations and insights will be presented at a showcase event hosted by Delta Air Lines in Atlanta, USA.