Air Europa has Sustainability at the Heart of its Strategic Plan

Photo source: Air Europa

Spanish airline Air Europa has made sustainability one of the fundamental cornerstones of its 2023-2025 Strategic Plan.

Launched last year, the plan revolves around three core pillars: profitability, sustainability, and innovation. By reinforcing these key elements, Air Europa aims to secure its position as a prominent player in the aviation industry.

In this regard, Air Europa announced more than 40 actions aimed at contributing to an economically profitable sector that respects the environment and the social context. The actions include the development of equipment and systems for calculating more efficient routes and freight, and the application of the most advanced technology for the digitalisation of different aspects of operations.

787 Dreamliner: A pillar in its sustainability policy

As part of its commitment to efficiency and sustainability, Air Europa has invested in the 787 Dreamliner aircraft. A pillar in its sustainability policy, the 787 Dreamliner offers superior fuel efficiency, utilising 25 percent less fuel and emitting 25 percent fewer emissions, providing an eco-friendly travel experience.

Another firm step towards sustainability was the airline’s participation in SkyTeam’s “Sustainable Flight Challenge” that ran last year for the second time.

The “Sustainable Flight Challenge” by SkyTeam is a unique proposal in the aviation industry. It is a friendly competition between the companies in the SkyTeam alliance and some of their subsidiaries to help speed up innovation and change in the commercial aviation industry by minimising the environmental impact through good practices that can be implemented in daily operations.

Following the “Sustainable Flight Challenge”, SkyTeam rewarded Air Europa for its ability to reduce emissions with two awards.

Air Europa won the “Lower CO2 Emissions for Ground Operations” award, which makes visible the company’s effort to achieve a more sustainable activity in this type of activity. The airline was also awarded the “Lowest CO2 Emissions in Short Radio” award, which highlighted the company’s ability to optimize its activity with the aim of reducing polluting emissions as much as possible.

During the “Sustainable Flight Challenge”, Air Europa connected Madrid and Amsterdam on a return flight that became the most sustainable of all the flights operated by the Spanish airline in 2023. To achieve this, Air Europa employed its 787 Dreamliner, optimising every aspect of the operation – from the use of sustainable aviation fuel (SAF), to relying on electric ground handling vehicles – in an effort to demonstrate how it is possible to contribute to the decarbonisation of air transport and innovate to achieve a better future.

SkyTeam: “Air Europa demonstrated how it is possible to make ground operations more sustainable. Nearly half of the airline’s ground support equipment used for the challenge was electric, including their pushback, enabling the airline to generate the lowest CO₂ emissions per passenger on its Madrid-Amsterdam round-trip flights.”

Flight 2030 project

In keeping with the spirit of the challenge, Air Europa last August launched its Flight 2030 project, which groups a set of 45 planned initiatives to continue advancing in the direction laid out in its 2023-2025 Strategic Plan.

The airline has already made progress toward the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), which have yielded improvements in operational efficiency, reduced the environmental impact, increased on-time performance, involved suppliers and employees in adopting more responsible measures, advocated for inclusion and parity, and contributed to efforts for the betterment of the environment.

The measures being included in the Flight 2030 project range from the growing use of SAF to the incorporation of a sustainability clause in every contract, the use of technologies aimed at reducing the use of paper, consuming less energy in all operations, employee training and involvement, and selecting vendors whose policies are consistent with those of the company in this area.

Getting head start on using SAF

With regard to sustainable aviation fuel and although there is currently no obligation for Air Europa to use SAF on its flights, the company from Winter 2023 introduced the fuel on its Madrid-Havana flight. More specifically, for one year, Air Europa’s every first monthly Madrid-Havana flight flies with SAF. To this end, the company has reached agreements with Cepsa and Repsol, respectively.

The flights, which feature 2 percent SAF in aircraft tanks, serve as a test run ahead of the targets set by the European Union in its “ReFuelEU Aviation” legislative initiative, developed to boost sustainability in the airline industry. The new regulation requires European airlines to fly with 2 percent of sustainable fuel beginning in 2025, increasing to 6 percent in 2030 and 70 percent in 2050.

Air Europa’s commitment to the contribution to the development of a more fair and responsible aviation sector is reflected in its 2022 Sustainability Report, which is available here. The document includes the various initiatives undertaken over 2022 and has resulted being one of the core tenets of Air Europa’s Strategic Plan, which lays out a general outline that will allow the airline to consolidate its position by 2025.

Air Europa is represented in Greece by TAL Aviation.