Interview

The world is moving toward sustainability and the target is to achieve net zero emission by 2050. The global transport and logistics company, Kuehne+Nagel recently hosted first-of-its-kind sustainability event in Pune, India to highlight the initiatives taken toward achieving this goal. Mr. Marcel Fujike, Global Head of Products & Development, Air Logistics, Kuehne+Nagel talks to Vishal Kashyap, Managing Editor, Aviation World more on this. Excerpts from the interaction… Brief us about the recent sustainable event that was held in Pune,India. We had our first-ever sustainability event hosted in Pune for our customers across industries giving them an overview of sustainability, global emissions, and initiatives Kuehne+Nagel has taken across the globe. What is the goal &objectives of Kuehne+Nagel towards sustainability? At Kuehne+Nagel we have two major pillars inside our forum that are guiding us and leading our way. The first is the strategy that we recently announced in March 2023 at the Analyst Day in London where we clearly defined our core area in ESG (Environment Source and Governance) towards sustainability. The second is our vision for sustainability by 2030. We are working towards becoming the most trusted supply chain partner for a sustainable future. The second pillar is Science Based Targets and Initiatives (SBTI). Every year there is a climate change conference happening and in 2015 there was a climate change conference by the United Nations in Paris where great insight within various countries to eliminate global warming by 2050 to 1.5 degrees was shared. Now the question is what does that mean ‘up to 1.5 degrees?’ If we break it down to the companies,we get just the degrees figure, therefore we limit global warming basically up to 1.5 degrees. Hence, the SBTI is translating 1.5 degrees into absolute figures. We became science-based targets in 2021 and then we decided on our targets in mid-last year to become carbon neutral by 2050. Last year, we had 14.2 million tons of CO2e. Our emissions need to be reduced by 33 % by 2030 (against the 2019 baseline) and by 2050 it is our aim to have net zero emissions. While we will still have emissions that cannot be avoided but will compensate them with carbon capture i.e., active carbon removal – not offsetting. 2050 is set as the deadline to achieve net zero carbon emissions. What does that exactly mean? Net zero means we are still on one side of emissions and on the other side these emissions are reduced or brought to zero by active carbon capture. So, carbon capture means that there will be technologies out there that will help to remove carbon from the atmosphere. What are the specific steps that you are taking to curb pollution created in the logistics sector, especially in India? There is only one earth. Whatever we do in India impacts us globally, therefore as an organisation, we are not focusing on single countries. But all the measures we are taking are implemented globally. We are concentrating on our activities for global solutions first and then we have local-specific solutions. So, if we round this to India and we are looking into electric vehicles, warehousing, energy-powering sources, and solar energy. We have started now putting solar panels on the roofs of all our warehouses and offices and over the next two years,100% per cent of our electricity supply would be coming from renewable energy sources (wind, solar, water). End of last year, we stood at 85 % of the power coming from renewable energy. We have local initiatives running to implement sustainability actions in local Kuehne+Nagel departments and we take on activities supporting the care for the environment in local communities/countries as well. When you look at the larger picture of emissions unfortunately 98% of the emissions are indirect emissions globally like our airlines, shipping, truckers etc. and these are emissions that we are tackling. Globally in the next 10-15 years, we need to have biofuels which means we are actively promoting and investing in innovations as well as promoting the use of existing use of sustainable aviation fuel. What are the pertinent challenges that you see in the process of sustainability? Let’s take air freight as an example where we have three challenges in reducing the usage of carbon emissions. The first challenge is the awareness or knowledge of the industry. Because only a handful of carriers and partner airlines are up to speed on sustainability. This is taking a lot of time to educate and develop the concerned skills. The same is true for customers who are now moving in this direction. The second challenge we are looking into is the airside and the ability to ascertain aviation fuel because it is making emissions as the aircraft only has a life cycle of 40-50 years. Therefore, it will take some time until the first new technologies hit us and then really gives us any impact. Currently, the volume of bio fuel worldwide is very little and it’s insufficient to have an impact. The price of Sustainable Aviation Fuel is also 2 to 3 times higher than the existing Aviation Turbine Fuel due to several reasons like manufacturing and transportation etc. From India’s perspective don’t you think airlines are reluctant to adapt to Biofuel or SAF as that might impact their operational cost? With the support from the Indian govt, we can use SAF for airlines to become more carbon friendly.Methods like subsidising,incentivizing, or putting on mandates by DGCA that airlines need to have one per cent of SAF will help. The tricky part now is we have a limited access to SAF in India,but that can always be sourced from other countries like Singapore. What are the goals for the reduction in carbon emissions and future investments? The targets are set by SBTI and as mentioned by 2030 we need to save 33% of our total emissions which means 5.5 million tonnes of reduction of indirect emissions and by 2050 we have net zero emissions. The investment we are doing

Air Mauritius, the flagship carrier of Mauritius will resume its direct operations from Delhi from May 03, 2023 onwards. At this occasion, Mr. Kresimir Kucko, CEO of Air Mauritius speaks with Vishal Kashyap, Managing Editor, Aviation World on resumption from the capital city, fleet expansions and many more key issues. Excerpt from the interview…   What’s the news that you want to share for the Delhi sector? Air Mauritius has 50 years of presence in India with the flights and after the Covid, we restored the first flight to Mumbai which we are doing six times a week and now we are very proud to announce introducing flights to Delhi from 3rd May 2023 onwards. So, we are going to start with twice weekly flights and hopefully in October-November 2023 we may add the third weekly flights between Mauritius and Delhi. Which type of aircraft will be pressed into operations for Delhi –Mauritius sector and what will be its frequency? We are going to fly with Airbus 330 and it will be twice a week now and as I said in Oct-Nov 23 we will add third flight. So, basically same as the flight type to Mumbai. We are using a long haul fleet for our flight operations between Mauritius and India. Could you focus on total number of fleets that Air Mauritius have at present. Also the expansion schedule for this year and beyond? We are adding just as we speak another Airbus 330 and one more in few months. So, we have 4 Airbus A 350-900 XWB; 2 A330-300neo; 2 A330- 200; 3 ATR 72-500 aircraft. We have another one coming up in October 2023. This is the plan for current calendar year and next year in 2024, we will most likely add some regional fleet but then also from Airbus 320 family only. At the moment, we have two categories of fleets and will add more in later part of the year. What volume of tourist that you are looking forward to target with adding Delhi flight? India has very strong ties with Mauritius which are based on people to people relations. There is lot of family relations staying in both the country. So, its mix of travelers which includes not only leisure and honeymooners but also lot of business travelers as well. We have basically all major categories of passengers flying back and forth between Mauritius and India. Apart from India which other major countries that airline is connecting? We are flying to Europe and we are further expanding our European flights. We fly daily to Paris and from October 23 we will have a daily flight to London which is at present 5 times a week. In October 2023 we will add Geneva also as a seasonal destination. We are also flying to South Africa, Rodrigues Island, Kuala Lumpur and Australia and other few countries. Anything specific you would like to say about your association with Air Mauritius? I am 30+ plus years in this business .So I did basically everything accept flying and repairing the aircrafts at some point of my career. This is my 11th year as a CEO in my 3rd Company. I am very competitive and I would do my best to bring same success if not better with Air Mauritius as I did with Air Croatia and Gulf Air. Any special message you would like to give to Aviation World readers? Welcome to Air Mauritius! It’s a country where you will feel very much welcome and comfortable because of all these traditional cultural similarities. We are also Visa free country for Indian passport holders. So, by all means please come around and you are most welcome! “Air Mauritius will have biweekly flights from Delhi using the Airbus A330 aircraft in a Business and Economy class configuration with a capacity of 254 seats. The duration of the flight is 7 hours and 30 minutes. From Mumbai , it operates six weekly direct flights in the same flight configuration.”