We know that the subject of the impact of air transport on the environment is not taken lightly in Sweden, even if the public authorities are extremely hypocritical on the subject, but the latest decisions of SAS on the subject are more than doubtful.
SAS recently announced that it would give priority to “local” sourcing for its in-flight catering and replace plastic cups with wood. Why not, after all, it seems to be going in the right direction.
But other announcements leave us more pensive.
No more hot towels in flight
Last week the Scandinavian airline announced the end of the distribution of hot towels in flight, both in long and medium haul flights, in order to protect the environment.
We are not even going to say how much it is an appreciated attention by the passenger because one could answer that the comfort of the passenger does not matter when it is the environment that is at stake.
But it is hard to see how this would change anything, especially if the logical consequence is to replace them with cold, disposable paper or cloth napkins!
End of in-flight duty free sales
It was also the environment that was invoked several weeks ago when SAS announced the end of duty free sales in flight. We remember that KLM took the same decision a few months agoThis is not for environmental reasons but simply because it no longer corresponds to the customer’s expectations in terms of consumption.
From there to say that SAS is hunting for costs and sees a good reason to accompany and justify the end of an activity that is not very or not at all profitable, there is only one step that I will take without hesitation.
The environment is a good excuse to cut costs
More pragmatically, SAS’ figures are not good and its domestic market tends to be less dynamic than before. In such circumstances all savings are good to take and one does not take much risk in saying that the environmental excuse comes at the perfect time to make certain pills pass to customers.
A great example of Green Washing.
Photo : SAS Scandinavian Airlines by Markus Schma via Shutterstock
