July 28th, 2009 @ kadraoui
GULF Air is hoping that going green will help it climb out of the red. The airline yesterday committed to improving its environmental record and admitted it feared losing business if it didn’t. It made the pledge as it signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Bahrain’s General Directorate for Environment and Wildlife. “It (the MoU) has to be done now because if we leave it any longer then we will lose business; it’s as simple as that,” Gulf Air head of corporate social responsibility Sameer Hassan Al Saeed told the GDN. “We believe we have to have a clean ecology and that this is our social responsibility.
“Gulf Air has a good market, not only in Bahrain but we also take people from China to London and from America to Singapore. “We have customers everywhere and these customers, with new awareness, demand that we must be environment friendly and also have a good waste management system or else they will choose another supplier.” The MoU is intended to be a declaration of the airline’s intention to protect the environment, while at the same time creating positive change in Bahrain.
It was signed by Gulf Air chairman Talal Al Zain and General Directorate for Environment and Wildlife general director Dr Adel Al Zayani in a ceremony at the latter’s offices in Salmabad. Mr Al Zain told a Press conference soon afterwards that it was Gulf Air’s responsibility to protect the environment. “Gulf Air recognises that social, economic and environmental responsibilities are integral to its business and believes in the importance of the interrelationship with the local community and the environment in which it operates,” he said. “We endorse the fact that environmental protection has a direct impact on the overall well-being of society and, therefore, it is out responsibility to find ways to protect our environment through constructive measures – both medium and long term.” Meanwhile, Mr Al Zayani described the signing as a step towards meeting both organisations’ goals, while “sharing a responsibility towards the nation’s economy, environment and society”.
“We are obliged to strike a balance between maintaining a safe and healthy environment and enabling our national carrier to achieve success and prosperity with an eco-compliant work policy,” he added.
Gulf Air is now in the middle of a major rebuilding exercise following the departure of former president and chief executive Björn Näf at the start of the month. He has been replaced by Samer Majali, former head of Royal Jordanian and the son of former Jordanian prime minister Abdelsalam Majali, who officially starts work on Saturday. The GDN reported yesterday that Bahrain’s national carrier was now seeking advisers to help turn it around. Mr Näf predicted last November that the airline would return to profitability by 2010, but MPs claimed earlier this year that Gulf Air was haemorrhaging as much as $700,000 (BD264,600) a day. The airline announced in 2007 that its losses stood at more than $1 million a day at the time. The General Directorate of Environment and Wildlife is a subsidiary of the Public Commission for the Protection of Marine Resources, Environment and Wildlife.
thanratty@gdn.com.bh
Tags: Green, Gulf Daily News, Press