WHY IT RATES: The move signals a commitment to sustainability and environmentally friendly travel. - Patrick Clarke, TravelPulse Senior Editor
The SATA Group initiated the IATA Environmental Assessment (IEnvA) program for aviation, developed by the International Air Transport Association (IATA).
Since each airline has a different reality, Quintin Holder, IATA's IEnvA Program Manager went to São Miguel (Azores) to assess firsthand the company's reality and to design, along with Azores Airlines' Sustainability Department team, a process adapted to the Group's particular performance conditions, considering the outermost region characteristics in which the SATA Group's companies operate.
SATA believes that its mission is to ensure that everything is done to become an example to follow in terms of environmental sustainability. "SATA companies must act as if they were not exempted and even go beyond others, compliant with what the Azores are all about!" said Luís Rodrigues, Chairman of the SATA Group. And this is the principle that preceded the SATA Group's registry to the IEnvA program.
"We were delighted to learn that SATA Azores Airlines has joined the IEnvA program. Sustainability is a critical challenge for our industry and proactively taking measures to measure and act across operations, is a commitment sign that SATA Azores Airlines is making and will enable it to achieve the highest environmental certification available to the aviation industry", said Rafael Schvartzman, IATA's Regional Vice President for Europe.
The IEnvA Program includes processes that promote corporate, operational, and procedural changes to be implemented in all the company areas to ensure the adoption of robust and specific environmental practices for aviation, aiming at reducing its impact on the environment.
Obtaining IEnvA Certification allows the SATA Group to objectively prove to all stakeholders (passengers, service providers, code-share partners, alliance partners, banks, and financiers) that it permanently ensures a sustainable and consistent environmental performance, compliant with the aviation industry's best and most recent practices.
Furthermore, the IEnvA Certification simultaneously grants ISO 14001:2015 Environmental Certification to SATA Air Açores and Azores Airlines, which adds to the environmental efforts and the successes already achieved. Since the path to sustainability encompasses many departments, several corporate processes will continue to take place simultaneously in various areas of the Group's companies, from awareness to training or specific environmental projects.
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