The International Flight Services Association (IFSA) and the Aviation Sustainability Forum (ASF) have entered into a strategic partnership to support the development of sustainability solutions for the entire inflight services sector.
By coming together the two organisations believe they will be in a position to bolster collaboration and accelerate progress towards a more circular and sustainable future within inflight services. Both parties say they are now looking forward to supporting the industry with their common sustainability goals. They will use their collaboration to draw more industry partners together for an on-going, collective approach to the sustainability issue worldwide.
Sustainability has been identified as a priority by aviation industry leaders and as aligned stakeholders IFSA and ASF can pool efforts and initiatives to support the march of sustainability within aviation, and also provide valuable insights and reputational benefits for both organisations, and the inflight industry at large.
Matt Crane, founder of the ASF, commented: “The first ASF sustainability project has progressed extremely well and we are grateful to the members who have help us with that. ASF is now incorporated as a non-profit association in Singapore and is aligned with considerable research and expertise in Singapore through the Singapore government. This partnership with IFSA brings our combined efforts together to improve the sustainability of inflight services for all in the sector. Collaboration is absolutely key.”
The ASF was set up to improve the sustainability and circularity of passenger Inflight Products and Services. As a collective force, the ASF is committed to bringing together companies and organizations from across the inflight services supply chain to collaborate by sharing knowledge and data and commissioning research to develop sustainable solutions and standards that are supported by our governing bodies and adopted by the industry.
IFSA is a global non-profit trade association serving the needs and interests of airline and railway companies, caterers and suppliers who provide onboard services. Under the umbrella of APEX (Airline Passenger Experience Association), it serves all major airlines. in the world, IFSA is dedicated to the advancement of the art and science of the multi-billion-dollar onboard service industry. The APEX/IFSA Board of Governors selected sustainability as one of two priorities for 2022.
A spokesman said: “IFSA is delighted to announce this partnership with the ASF, enabling a direct contribution to these goals and the immediate benefit of demonstrating an increased level of industry collaboration.”
The Board of Governors has also approved that through the APEX Official Airline Ratings, carriers must make publicly and easily available to their customers their sustainability initiatives before they can qualify for future APEX Four / Five Star awards. In addition, each airline will need to commit to making incremental improvements to their sustainability efforts each year thereafter in an ongoing improvement commitment to sustainable aviation.
