admin TUI’s move to join the Airlines for Europe (A4E) industry association at the end of 2019 came after the leisure giant decided to seek a louder lobbying voice on pressing issues such as sustainability and taxation.
The European group’s chief executive for airlines, Kenton Jarvis, said that joining A4E gives TUI’s five operators – TUI Airways, TUIfly Belgium, TUIfly Deutschland, TUIfly Netherlands, and TUIFly Nordic – a single lobbying voice on those key topics, and more.
The desire to create that single voice reflects a wider strategy to bring TUI’s carriers closer together.
“When we charged [our team] to look at the most effective lobbying body, A4E looked like the most obvious choice,” Jarvis states. “When you look at the company you are in when you join A4E, I think that speaks for itself.”
A4E was launched in January 2016 with a mandate to promote the interests of European airlines and their passengers. Members include Europe’s five largest airline groups: Air France-KLM, EasyJet, IAG, Lufthansa Group and Ryanair.
TUI’s membership also brings a unique perspective to A4E: that of a group whose focus goes beyond airlines and into the wider tourism realm, including hotels and cruise ships.
In order to best contribute to the European Commission’s upcoming Green Deal strategy, A4E and other airlines have joined forces with Europe’s airports, manufacturers and air navigation service providers in the development of a cross-sector climate initiative. Run as an independent study, this sustainable aviation roadmap for Europe will identify opportunities for even greater decarbonisation, whether through technology, operations, sustainable aviation fuels or price incentives.
As part of A4E, TUI can help shape that study, Jarvis says.
“If we don’t take proactive steps, then you run the risk of people either voting with their feet, or new, inventive taxes coming in,” he states. “So we need to do the right things for sustainability.”
Jarvis believes that TUI is slightly ahead of the game, noting that the group’s sustainability policies have been in place for some years, including a plan to base its fleet around the latest-generation, fuel-efficient jets in the Boeing 787 and 737 Max. He added, “The TUI Group is the world’s largest tourism group, so we have over 380 hotels, 17 cruise ships. We have to think about when we make a policy, how that plays out across all arms.”
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