The Alliance for Air Transport Sustainability is born

The main agents of the business sector, academia and NGOs have marked a historic milestone with the creation of the Alliance for the Sustainability of Air Transport in Spain (AST) to respond to the greatest present and future challenge of aviation, sustainability. This union was created with the aim of promoting the development of sustainable aviation from an environmental, economic and social perspective. 

The Alliance has started this Monday after the signing of its constitution by the Governing Board, formed by ALA, Airbus, Aena, AESA, Air Europa, Air Nostrum, AOP, Binter, Boeing, CEOE, ECODES Ecology and Development, ENAIRE, Exolum, IATA, Iberia, SENASA, TEDAE, Transport & Environment, the Polytechnic University of Madrid (UPM) and Vueling.  

The signing event, which took place at the Airbus facilities in Getafe, was attended by the President of ALA, Javier Gándara; the President of Airbus Commercial Aviation in Spain, Ricardo Rojas; the President and CEO of Aena, Maurici Lucena; the Director General of AESA, Montserrat Mestres; the CEO of Air Europa, Jesús Nuño de la Rosa; the President of Air Nostrum, Carlos Bertomeu; the President of AOP, Luis Travesedo; the President of Binter, Rodolfo Núñez; the Vice President of Global Technology of Boeing Research & Technology, José Enrique Román; the President of the Tourism Council of the CEOE, Juan Cierco; the Associate Director of Just Transition and Global Alliances of ECODES, Mario Rodríguez; the Director General of ENAIRE, Ángel Luis Arias; the CEO of Exolum, Jorge Lanza; the Regional Vice President of IATA, Rafael Schvartzman; the President of Iberia, Javier Sánchez-Prieto; the President of SENASA, Andrés Arranz; the President of TEDAE, Ricardo Martí Fluxá; the Director of Transport & Environment (T&E) in Spain, Isabell Büschel; and the President and CEO of Vueling, Marco Sansavini, among others. 

This Alliance aims to promote the decarbonisation of the aviation sector by encouraging the identification and implementation of new technologies and innovative processes in a rational and orderly manner to ensure the long-term sustainability of the aviation sector.  

It is a collaborative mechanism made up of entities from different disciplines, beyond the aviation sector, such as business, academia and the third sector. The aim is to provide a cross-cutting response that contributes to progress in this transition towards a more sustainable mode of transport to which the airline industry is committed. In short, an Alliance open to adding more voices to help in this objective and to count on the Administration to achieve the necessary public-private collaboration to respond to this challenge.

Among the objectives of this Alliance are to lead the decarbonisation of the sector, covering all possible solutions and technologies to achieve it and boosting Spain's industrial capacity to offer disruptive technologies, as well as other low-carbon alternatives and circular economy projects. It also encourages public-private collaboration to promote R&D&I and accelerate the development of low-carbon aircraft. Encouraging the large-scale production of sustainable aviation fuels (SAF) in Spain is another of its objectives, as well as promoting the development of initiatives that guarantee the circularity of the waste generated by the sector. In short, to make Spain a country of reference in the development of new technologies in the aviation sector. 

The president of ALA, Javier Gándara, stressed that this Alliance responds to the commitment of the aviation sector to its progressive decarbonisation, but points out that this transition must be balanced and rational in order to guarantee the environmental, economic and social sustainability of aviation. "This Alliance will allow us to find the best route for the transition of the airline industry to which we are committed, based on dialogue and collaboration, joining forces to ensure the sustainability of aviation in the future from this triple perspective: environmental, economic and social", said the head of ALA.  

"At Airbus we have a clear purpose: to pioneer a sustainable aerospace industry for a safe and united world. This is the ambition that drives everything we do and develop. But it is clear that we cannot go it alone, we need to join forces with the whole industry and the creation of the Alliance is a key milestone in this journey," said Ricardo Rojas, President of Airbus Commercial Aircraft in Spain. 

The Alliance for Sustainable Air Transport (AST) is made up of more than 900 companies or entities that generate more than 294,000 direct jobs and a turnover of more than 80.58 billion euros.