Air Europa participates in “The Aviation Challenge” competition with most efficient flight between Madrid and Santo Domingo

Air Europa participated for the third consecutive year in the friendly challenge “The Aviation Challenge”, organized by the SkyTeam airline alliance to help accelerate sustainable innovation in the aviation industry.

In the 2024 edition, The Aviation Challenge expanded its vision and scope to help drive change throughout the aviation industry.

A total of 24 airlines, including some that do not belong to the SkyTeam alliance, joined the challenge, where participants opted for awards in 18 categories; the finalists in each category will be announced next December. During the friendly competition, the company shared learnings, optimizing all aspects of a long-haul flight from Barajas airport in Madrid to Santo Domingo in the Dominican Republic, with the aim of demonstrating the feasibility of implementing improvements to make air operations more efficient and contribute to the sustainability of the sector.

To connect both sides of the Atlantic, Air Europa used a Boeing 787 Dreamliner, “the most modern and efficient long-haul model on the market, to reduce emissions as much as possible, and operated with 2% sustainable SAF fuel in its tanks, which it already uses on its routes before the European Union makes it mandatory to use this fuel”.

“As part of its commitment to sustainability and social justice, the aircraft carried in its holds material collected by Air Europa employees to donate to children at risk of exclusion, cared for in the Dominican capital by Fundación La Matica”, explained the airline.

Air Europa chose the most efficient route, and uses artificial intelligence for the distribution of catering cargo, for which lighter containers were used in the holds to reduce consumption and reduce the weight of the aircraft, “which had an occupancy close to 100%, using all its storage capacity, which means reducing emissions per passenger”. In addition, they explained that inside and outside the aircraft measures were implemented to make the operation of the aircraft more balanced by enabling catering with new containers for the menu and plastics were eliminated to wrap blankets and pillows.

Prior to boarding, the airline informed passengers on the flight to adopt measures to minimize environmental impact, including online check-in to reduce paper waste, and Groundforce electric vehicles from the company Globalia were used for ground operations.

Air Europa indicated that parity criteria were applied in the selection of the employees assigned to the flight, taking advantage of the trip to transport to Boca Chica, in Santo Domingo, a shipment of clothes and school supplies for more than 90 children between 3 and 6 years of age at risk of exclusion cared for by Fundación La Matica, an entity with which the company has been collaborating for years.

With more than 70 flights operated in 2023 and more than 400 ideas proposed, this time the organization seeks to put these solutions into practice to demonstrate their impact and feasibility. In the 2023 competition, Air Europa won the awards for “Lowest CO2 emissions on a short-haul flight” and “Lowest CO2 emissions for ground operations”. It was also a finalist in the category “Greatest reduction of CO2 emissions on short-haul flights”.