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Tero Taskila looks forward to 2009.

ATN talks to Gulf Air chief strategy officer Tero Taskila about new biofuel initiatives, reducing fuel consumption and raising eco-awareness amongst staff as well as passengers.

What's the current update on Gulf Air's involvement in the biofuel initiative?

We're very proud to be part of this initiative. The aim is to enable the commercial use of renewable fuel sources; to have biofuel ready as a commercial option by 2013.

We are joined in this project by Air France, Air New Zealand, All Nippon Airways, Continental Airlines, Gulf Air, Japan Airlines, KLM, SAS and Virgin Atlantic Airways and we will work and consult closely with our partners to try to achieve this exciting goal.

What other environmental initiatives is Gulf Air involved in?

We have been discussing this at a high management level within the company and it's a part of our business that we take very seriously, so much so that we have brought in IATA to collaborate with us to help track the success of our initiatives and audit our fuel to help track the effectiveness of our reductions efforts. We want to be able to achieve a minimum of 3% fuel reduction annually at the very least.

How will you achieve that?

We need to look at our routes and find ways to fly smarter. We are accelerating our fleet renewal programme and trying to optimise our network and route planning; things like that.

We've also looked at how we taxi our aircraft and different ways to approach our aircraft to save fuel; so we're looking at as many things as we can and not just fuel: we're looking at ways to reduce inner waste on the aircraft as well and setting up processes for that too.

How has the staff responded to these changes?

We have introduced a climate change task force within the company and it's their duty to help increase waste reduction and raise awareness about these issues amongst the staff. The response has been really positive so far and we need to make sure that everyone in the company understands how to contribute and why it's important to do so.

Do you think the Middle East is becoming more environmentally aware?

It's probably fair to say that's it's not as big an issue here as it is in Europe or America, but it's a growing one. I think 2009 will definitely see it enter into the consciousness more and we'll be ready for it when it does because it's something that we've already focused a lot of our efforts on.

We want to see the awareness levels raised about how even small contributions can go towards helping the environment, within our own staff, in the industry and with our passengers as well.

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