On 3 October 2023, Skyteam unveiled the winners of The Sustainable Flight Challenge – the industry’s first sustainability initiative – at an awards ceremony in Atlanta, USA. Vietnam Airlines won the “Boldest Move” subcategory award for its efforts and creativity in providing unused, quality inflight food such as cereal and snacks to social enterprise, VietHarvest. Following strict quality control processes, the donated food is redistributed to communities in need in Vietnam.
VietHarvest is an innovative new social enterprise launched in June 2022 which collects quality surplus food and redistributes it to underserved communities in Vietnam. This initiative has been implemented on all Vietnam Airlines flights over the past three months. The airline was also ranked in the top three airlines with the best waste management solutions.
Launched in 2022, The Sustainable Flight Challenge (TSFC) harnesses the power of friendly competition to inspire new innovations to help reduce air travel’s footprint. This year, 22 airlines operated a total of 72 flights – 50 more than in 2022 – and submitted more than 350 new ideas to be shared across the industry. Award submissions were evaluated by a diverse jury of international aviation and sustainability experts, including the Royal Netherlands Aerospace Center and PA Consulting, who selected the winners of the 25 subcategories and seven overall awards.
Dang Anh Tuan, Executive Vice President of Vietnam Airlines said: “This award illustrates Vietnam Airlines’ commitment to reducing food waste, hunger, and poverty, and creating a sustainable food culture and eco-system in Vietnam. Not only do we raise awareness and explore innovative approaches, we also hope to continue to join forces with airlines worldwide to reshape the future of aviation and advance the industry’s goal of achieving net-zero emissions by 2050.”
Previously in May 2023, Vietnam Airlines completed the long-haul flight VN37 from Hanoi to Frankfurt (Germany) as part of The Sustainable Flight Challenge. Vietnam Airlines joined hands with social enterprise Limloop to recycle hundreds of unusable life vests into handbags for passengers. Vietnam Airlines also served a sustainable inflight meal on special flights, using seasonal ingredients and alternative plant-based protein sources from sustainably grown soybeans in partnership with the US Soybean Export Council (USSEC).