Our new podcast episode is LIVE — featuring Dr. Mark Hiller, CEO of RECARO Aircraft Seating, the market leader in Economy class aircraft seats.

A pre-pandemic 2019 was a record year for RECARO – they clocked $700 million a year in revenues.

Then, one of the biggest blows happened to the whole aviation industry in 2020 and 2021, when the majority of the global passenger fleet was grounded. RECARO faced a tremendous downturn as well, losing more than 65% of its revenues.

At that point, Dr. Mark Hiller, CEO of RECARO Aircraft Seating and RECARO Holding, and his team began exploring how travel would change. They soon realised that increasing efficiency and lowering the overall weight on the aircraft would be a major trend to focus on.

Our Sustainability In The Air podcast guest, Dr. Mark Hiller dives deep in this conversation on the measures RECARO is taking to make flying greener today – from lighter seats that save 1000 tonnes of CO2 annually to eLeather.

Here are some of the key highlights of the conversation with Shashank Nigam ✈:

💚 Aviation pre-pandemic and post-pandemic: Recaro’s perspective (2:28)
💚 What has changed for the industry post-pandemic (4:19)
💚 How to tell if it’s a Recaro seat when onboard (6:02)
💚 Lifecycle assessment of onboard seats (6:58)
💚 Nano-coating: increasing appealing appearance and durability (12:20)
💚 Saving airlines 1000 tonnes of Co2 emissions annually (14:44)
💚 How thin can airline seats go if travellers still want to fly in comfort? (17:20)
💚 Upcycling: giving airlines their aircraft seat materials back to create merchandise (23:28)
💚 What Recaro is doing to reduce their carbon footprint (28:48)
💚 Dr. Mark Hiller’s advice to CEOs on sustainability (33:45)
💚 What airlines are doing wrong when it comes to sustainability (35:08)

Listen to the episode here or on your favourite podcast platform.

Together with our season partner CarbonClick, we plant one tree for every new listener and 50 trees for each review. All funds will go to the Maputo Bay Reforestation Initiative in southern Mozambique.

Sign up for a sustainability communications masterclass

Earlier this week we released our report on avoiding the greenwashing trap. We’ve had an incredible response so far, with close to 3,000 downloads. If you’ve not accessed it yet, it’s available here.

On the back of our report, we are running a limited number of sustainability communications masterclasses for individual airlines and airports.

These will each include four remote sessions, followed by a two-day on-the-ground interactive workshop.

Areas covered will include:

1 – A look at the spectrum of climate activism, and the strategy and aims of different groups

2 – Sustainability marketing lessons from outside aviation, including greenwashing claims

3 – How airlines and airports currently communicate sustainability initiatives

4 – Consumer attitudes towards flying and their carbon footprint

5 – A look at your own sustainability programme, what are you doing, and what you could be doing

6 – Validation and proof. How should this be added to the validation mix?

7 – The C-Suite and sustainability. How, where and what should your most senior executives say?

The output is then a sustainability communications toolkit, which summarises all of our joint conclusions and provides a recommended pathway forward.

We are only doing four of these in 2023, so to find out more contact SimpliFlying CEO, Shashank Nigam, at shashank@simpliflying.com

Deal news

Ryanair becomes first airline in Europe to sign up to Citi’s new Sustainable Deposit Solution (Travel Daily News)

Sustainability news

Delta thinks airline carbon emissions could peak by 2025 (Quartz)

Etihad intensifies its net-zero commitment with World Energy agreement (Arabian Business)

British Airways moves closer to sustainable fuel (Sustainability)

Japanese airline to use SAF on domestic routes (Biofuels International)

Farnborough Airport launches net zero roadmap (Travel Radar)

Bengaluru’s new airport terminal balances tech, art & sustainability (Financial Express)