AirAsia Group, Chief Sustainability Officer, Mun Ching Yap at the CAPA Asia Aviation Summit 2022

Transcript

Mun Ching Yap:I think we still have quite a long way to go, and the main issue is about feedstock, whether we have enough feedstock in the region and globally as well. So I think we still are a few years along, but there is a lot of money being invested into it, and we really hope that in the next 5 years, it will come down. But having said that, the price of SAF is actually tracked to jet fuel, but not 100%. So the higher jet fuel becomes, the more feasible it is for airlines to move towards SAF. So let's see how it goes, right? I think at the moment with the Ukraine war, it has made SAF a little bit more reachable and it will give the opportunity for the industry to catch up. 80% is already considered low. I mean, from our estimates, only 1% of people would willingly offset. I think it's something that is not visible to them in Southeast Asia at least. The more visible problem is that of plastic waste, and people are more concerned about something they can see rather than something they can't see. And I think even though there's a lot of talk about climate change, it doesn't affect all of us the same way. Some countries would get hit a lot worse, like the Philippines, but In Malaysia, Singapore, probably you get a bit more heavy rain but not to the extent, so you don't really feel it. And until a point that you really feel it, like in Europe this summer, people really take notice. So a lot of education will have to go into that as well on how it would contribute to the longer-term climate solutions. Well, we have actually been talking to quite a few companies. Every time we get a bank who come and ask us about our ESG performance, and we will ask them, So what are you doing to offset your business travel? So one of the things that we are thinking of possibly implementing at a later stage will be, can they work with us on a sort of SAF purchase program? So they will purchase the SAF and we will use it, but they can receive the certificates on them for their own reporting purposes. So then you will get all these guys who are asking us what we are doing to take their responsibility as well. But there's also a lot of changes. So regulatory-wise, the stock exchange in Malaysia, for example, world is making it mandatory for all publicly listed companies to disclose their Scope 3 emissions, which takes into account business travel. So we will know how much they are emitting from business travel and hold them to account.

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