Challenge Synopsis:
Air Transat’s objective is to be a leader in environmentally responsible travel. Air Transat is interested in circular economy solutions to make in-flight service as sustainable as possible while minimizing overall flight GHG emissions, replacing single use items with lightweight reusable or recyclable alternatives. In addition to our company objectives, governments are implementing new environmental laws concerning aircraft waste. For example, the European Union Single Use Plastics Directive has banned or restricted certain products that we use onboard. We are very interested in solutions that will help us meet our sustainability and regulatory goals and requirements.
Context:
Air Transat has approximately 250 onboard items sourced from all over the world. We want to offer our customers a quality service with sustainable products. We are looking for items and solutions that will enable us to do the following:
- Remove or reduce plastic.
- Decrease or eliminate single use items.
- Reduce packaging.
- Use sustainable materials (ex. amenity kits)
Response Criteria:
- Products will have to meet aviation safety and health regulations.
- Items and solutions need to be cost competitive with our current supplier base.
- Preference will be given locally sourced products (near our bases and airport destinations).
- We prefer products with shorter lead times.
- Weight is a very important consideration as higher heavier items cause us to burn more fuel and emit more greenhouse gas.
- Supplier sustainability will be a key selection criterion (environmental certifications, climate targets, factory working conditions, diversity, etc.)
The Opportunity:
- If selected, you would become a supplier to one of the largest airlines in Canada.
- The market potential for sustainable inflight items is huge. Other airlines have the same constraints and problems as us. The aviation sector is growing fast and will continue to
do so. Recent estimates suggest that demand for air transport will increase by an average of over 4% annually over the next 20 years.
About Air Transat:
Air Transat is Canada’s number one leisure airline. We fly to approximately 60 international destinations in more than 25 countries in the Americas and Europe, offers domestic and connecting flights within Canada, and carries some 5 million passengers every year. Air Transat is a business unit of Transat A.T. Inc., a leading integrated international tourism company specializing in holiday travel and offering vacation packages, hotel stays and air travel.