22 airlines, 350 new ideas. SkyTeam announces TSFC winners

22 airlines. 72 flights. 350 new ideas.

Yesterday, SkyTeam announced the winners of The Sustainable Flight Challenge (TSFC) 2023 but the initiative’s significance extends far beyond these seven champions.

In this, the second year of the challenge, participating airlines grew to 22 and operated a total of 72 flights, 50 more than the previous year. TSFC’s expansion is a testament to collaboration in the face of industry challenges.

Patrick Roux, CEO, SkyTeam said:

“The participating airlines have sparked hundreds of new solutions and ways of working that have the potential to bring about positive action and drive wider industry change while we await game-changing technology and greater availability of sustainable aviation fuels.”

Notable achievements during the challenge include the first SAF flight from Africa and an average improvement of 19 per cent in CO2 intensity compared to the same flights operated in the previous month.

The awards were distributed as follows:

1. Best Innovation: Kenya Airways for its pioneering role in developing new SAF supply chains.
2. Best Adoption: KLM Royal Dutch Airlines for having the most solutions adopted by other airlines.
3. Best collaboration: Air France for its breadth of partnership established across nine workstreams.
4. Lowest CO2 Emissions: TAROM.
5. Greatest CO2 Reduction: China Eastern.
6. Best In-flight Waste Management: KLM Cityhopper for reducing waste to 62 grams per person.
7. Lowest CO2 Emission Group Operations: Air Europa who used electric power for nearly 50 per cent of ground support equipment.

Earlier this year, Mauro Oretti, the then Head of Operations at SkyTeam joined for an interview exploring the nuances of the challenge. Mauro highlighted the ways TSFC drives innovation around operational efficiency and the complexities that come with extending these initiatives across multiple industry players. Watch the full interview.

For more like this see:

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• Interview with Andreas Slettvoll, CEO CHOOOSE – Sustainability and regional trends
• Sustainability, digitisation, and post-pandemic strategy. An interview with Mike Szücs, Chief Executive Officer, Cebu Pacific 

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