Aviation Sustainability and the Environment, CAPA 04-Feb-2020

This CAPA report features a summary of recent aviation sustainability and environment news, selected from the 300+ news alerts published daily by CAPA. For more information, please contact us.

Ryanair appoints new director of sustainability

Ryanair Group CEO Michael O'Leary, during the group's Q3FY2019 presentation, announced (03-Feb-2020) the appointment of Thomas Fowler as director of sustainability, effective Dec-2019. Mr Fowler will be responsible for delivering the group's environmental strategy.

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EUROPE'S GREENEST, CLEANEST AIRLINE:

The future of our planet is of vital importance to our customers and all our people. Ryanair has the lowest carbon emissions of any major EU airline at just 66 grams of CO₂ per passenger km. Passengers switching to Ryanair can halve their CO₂ emissions compared to other major EU airlines. In Dec. 2019, Ryanair appointed a Director of Sustainability to deliver the Group's ambitious sustainability targets.

Ryanair operates the youngest fleet, with the highest load factors, and newer more fuel-efficient engines. Our Environmental Policy commits us to:

• Be plastic free in 5 years;
• Cut noise emissions by up to 40% per seat;
• Cut CO₂ emissions by 10% by 2030 (up to 50% lower than other major EU airlines);
• Encourage guests to support our voluntary carbon offset programme;
• Work with environmental partners to improve our environment in Europe.

While aviation generates just 2% of Europe's CO₂, our industry must work harder to further cut these low emissions. EU airlines already pay excessive environmental taxes - Ryanair will pay over €630m in such taxes this year.

Ryanair Group fuel bill to increase by EUR440m in FY2020

Ryanair Group forecast (03-Feb-2020) its fuel bill will increase by EUR440 million and ex-fuel unit costs will increase by approximately 2% year-on-year in the 12 months ending 31-Mar-2020. As previously reported by CAPA, Ryanair reported total fuel costs of EUR2427 million in the 12 months ended 31-Mar-2019.

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Outlook

As announced on 10 Jan., Ryanair's FY20 PAT guidance has risen to a range of €0.95bn to €1.05bn thanks to stronger Christmas and New Year travel bookings, at better than expected fares. Q4 forward bookings are 1% ahead of this time last year at slightly better than expected average fares and we now expect full year traffic to grow by 8% to 154m guests. Ancillary revenues continue to grow, but at a slower rate having annualised the cabin bag changes in Nov. This will support full-year revenue per guest growth of between +3% to +4%. The full year fuel bill will rise by €440m and ex-fuel unit costs will increase by approx. 2%. On the basis of current trading, Ryanair expects to finish close to the mid-point of the new PAT guidance range. This guidance is heavily dependent on close-in Q4 fares and the absence of any security events.

Montijo Airport conversion to include EUR4.50 surcharge for environmental approval

Lisbon Montijo Air Base conversion reportedly will include a EUR4.5 surcharge per passenger in order to receive approval from Portugal's environment protection agency (Portal Resident, 23-Jan-2020). The surcharge will be collected by carriers operating at the airport. Another draft project included an annual payment of EUR200,000 by ANA Airports of Portugal in order to receive the environmental approval.

Grab launches electric fleet at Jakarta Soekarno-Hatta International Airport

Grab launched operations with an electric fleet at Jakarta Soekarno-Hatta International Airport terminal 3 (Jakarta Post, 01-Feb-2020). The rideshare company is based out of Singapore.

Tourism Industry Aoteroa 2019 sustainability rating increases to 8.2

Tourism Industry Aoteroa (TIA) announced (30-Jan-2020) the following sustainability highlights in 2019, as part of its 2017 Tourism Sustainability Commitment (TSC). The 2019 assessment is based on a survey of 614 tourism businesses carried out for TIA by Angus & Associates, with various industry data sources. Details include:

• An overall TSC rating of 8.2, up 0.3% year-on-year;
• Individual ecological restoration goal increased six points, with 69% of tourism businesses surveyed actively supporting ecological restoration initiatives;
• 97% of international and domestic visitors had their expectations met or exceeded, surpassing the 2025 goal of 96%;
• 78% of business respondents are actively working to reduce their environmental footprint, up 2%;
• Percentage 'New Zealanders who are happy with the level of tourism activity and support growth' decreased 1% to 81%.

TIA stated 1300 tourism businesses have committed to the TSC, with the organisation planning to strengthen the TSC programme throughout 2020 to ensure that the industry is taking steps to make their operations more sustainable.

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New Zealand's tourism industry continued to make important strides towards its sustainability goals in 2019, according to research and analysis by Tourism Industry Aotearoa.

Since the launch of its Tourism Sustainability Commitment in 2017, TIA has been tracking progress for each of the TSC's eight economic, host community, visitor and environmental goals. The 2019 assessment is based on a survey of 614 tourism businesses carried out for TIA by Angus & Associates along with various industry data sources.

The TSC has the ambitious vision of 'leading the world in sustainable tourism.'

In 2019, the overall TSC sustainability rating was 8.2, up from 7.9 the previous year. This represents solid progress towards the goal of 9.5 by 2025.

TIA Chief Executive Chris Roberts says: "It's great to see the industry tracking in the right direction. We are seeing a genuine commitment to economic, environmental and social sustainability. Being leaders in this space is how we will continue to attract highvalue visitors."

At the individual goal level, the ecological restoration goal had the highest gain over the past year, up 6 points on 2018, with 69% of tourism businesses surveyed now actively supporting and championing ecological restoration initiatives.

Visitor-focused goals continued to be where tourism operators were performing best, with 97% of international and domestic visitors having their expectations met or exceeded, already surpassing the 2025 goal of 96%.

Gains were achieved towards the goal of businesses measuring, managing and minimising their environmental footprint, increasing by 2% to 78% of respondents reporting that they are actively working to reduce their footprint.