Alexi Huntley Khajavi is the chief marketing officer for NatureAir, a small airline that serves destinations in Costa Rica and Panama. Your NatureAir flight comes with an unusual guarantee: It won’t leave a carbon footprint. I asked Khajavi to explain.
What does it mean to be a carbon-neutral airline?
It means that any and all CO2 emissions NatureAir emits from its operations are sequestered through another activity which reduces or fixes CO2 from being released into the atmosphere. We have chosen to offset our emissions through conservation of tropical forests here in Costa Rica.
Deforestation is the largest contributor to global greenhouse gas emissions and also the major reason behind the loss of bio-diversity. Our mission is to protect the wildlife, the soil and water sources of local communities as well as reduce the release of CO2 into our atmosphere.
We look at that as being a very positive force of good. Right now, we are protecting over 300 acres of primary tropical forests and each flight we take, we will continue to protect more land from deforestation.
At the same time however, we know that offsetting emissions without reducing them is just not the right way to operate. That’s why we have implemented a program which has reduced our CO2 emissions from flight operations by 7 percent since 2004, the same year we became carbon-neutral. We did this through improving our flight plans, spreading out our schedules of departures therefore reducing taxi time for the aircraft and also training our pilots to practice gradual ascents and descents into our airports. The bottom line is we are saving money by improving our efficiencies.
Do you think any airline can be carbon-neutral, or is this just something that you can do because of your market?
Of course any airline could be carbon-neutral, all it takes is the initiative. However, I wont lie that we have an advantage in the fact that we fly in Costa Rica — a place known for being the birth of sustainable and eco-tourism. In addition approximately 74 percent of all our passengers are visiting a national park while here in Costa Rica. These passengers are naturally concerned with their impact on the destinations and feel a deeper connection with NatureAir knowing their flight is helping to protecting the very places they are in Costa Rica to see.
Carbon neutrality is a simple concept really, but I don’t think many companies have taken it to this level of commitment like we have. Although we also see it as really good business. In an essence, if we can protect the places that are providing us with a growing number of tourists each year, while also building relationships through these programs with our core markets, its obviously a win-win for us, our clients and the destinations we fly to.
America’s domestic airlines tell us that we — and be we, I mean airline passengers — only care about low fares. What’s your experience?
I am sure some passengers do only care about low fares. However, you get what you paid for typically as well.
At NatureAir we want to give more than a low fare. Low fares are only part of the decision making process of passengers and we believe the types of travelers coming to Costa Rica want more than just low prices. Still, we do offer discounted and lower fares, but price is just not what defines us.
If you look around and talk to tourism providers here in Costa Rica, and I believe elsewhere, those companies that offer a good product with a sustainable component at competitive prices are doing better than those companies that are just trying to survive by tooting the low price horn. People want more – that’s our philosophy and until someone proves us wrong, we’re sticking to it.
You’re operating in Costa Rica, a country that has committed to becoming carbon-neutral by 2021. Do you think that goal will be met? And how does being in Costa Rica help you in achieving your objectives?
I think personally its going to be hard to meet this goal. But if we get 80 percent there, how incredible would that be? At the end of the day, we are all just chasing sustainability because there will always be improvements and new innovations in alternative energies, water conservation and other innovations we cant even imagine. We will continue to operate and do things that naturally have an impact on the environment.
Being in Costa Rica has helped NatureAir tremendously. The types of travelers coming to Costa Rica are more disposed to supporting sustainable brands, the hotel and tour operator partners we work with are also extremely committed to sustainability so there is a strong network of both private and public institutions here that support one another.
When we started with our carbon-neutral program, people didn’t even know what carbon-neutral meant, and global warming was still on the fringes of society and public acceptance. Its crazy to think how much has happened in just five to six years. I couldn’t even imagine being an airline in Turkey, Texas or anywhere else in 2004 and telling your passengers, ok folks you’re flying on a carbon-neutral airline. I think they would have jumped out right then and there. It was a challenge back then but, we definitely saw a traction with the types of eco travelers coming to Costa Rica.
What can the airline industry in the United States learn from you, in your opinion?
Get started now. As we are seeing, especially now with the meetings in Copenhagen, this issue isn’t going away.
Eco-tourism is here to stay and every business will have to account for it as part of their operating costs. I think that a lot of companies do simply want clarification on what they are supposed to do, I mean NatureAir had the ability to become carbon-neutral largely because it’s a small company. We don’t have to ask our shareholders if we can spend $250,000 a year on offsetting carbon emissions, my family is the shareholders — NatureAir was started by my father, myself and my brother.
Regardless, NatureAir is an important example because its fuel costs represent the same percentages of operating costs that a larger airline would have such as Delta or American Airlines. When others think that we have a simpler or less expensive cost of operation it’s simply not true. Our empirical costs might be lower but overall everything is comparable to a larger airline.
For the last five years NatureAir has been in the black. That’s a great feeling especially when nearly every airline in the world has been losing money. Little old NatureAir has been spending money on reducing its CO2 emissions and sequestration and at the same time being profitable. That’s a story I know a lot of airlines wish they could tell.
What do you hope passengers like me will learn from you?
Good question. I hope that passengers will look for and find authentic companies that are truly inspired to give something more to their clients. I don’t know who has learned more from whom because we feel like we have a long way to go in chasing sustainability. Ultimately, passengers need to ask questions and support the good companies with their purchasing decisions – that’s really what it comes down to.
I have to bring up the subject of greenwashing. But a lot of companies say the right things, when it comes to environmentalism. How do travelers separate the real ones from the fakes?
That’s hard, I have a hard time doing it myself and I have been in this industry a long time. I think the first thing that comes to mind is that you still have to offer a good product at a competitive price. By simply saying you’re more green than the other company, who cares? Do you have a nice pool, are the beds comfortable, are you safe, do you arrive on time, are you fun? Those questions of quality are still important and they always will be. However, there are some pro-active things you can do and that is by educating yourself through reliable sources like Rainforest Alliance, Sustainable Travel International and some other organizations that can help you ask the right questions before you travel.
There are skeptics reading this who will say that if you really want to be carbon-neutral, you’ll stop flying planes. How do you respond to them?
Sure, lets stop buying new clothes, watching TV, working on the computer, buying anything made out of wood or turning on the lights, all of which will reduce CO2. The solutions have to be realistic in order for us to achieve a global reduction of CO2 emissions. People that say we should stop flying as the solution to this global issue are not seeing the entire picture nor are they offering any viable solutions.
In addition, by not flying we would ultimately wipe out all long haul tourism destinations, thereby destroying one of the world’s largest industries which employs more than 220 million people worldwide and generating more than 9 percent of global GDP. If we stopped flying we would probably create more CO2 emissions by forcing developing nations into more extraction type industries than tourism, as well as throwing millions of people either back or deeper into poverty.
Flying less is a viable solution but so is driving less and other forms of transportation. Our point is that there needs to be a transformational change in the way we power our lives, and that if we continue to neglect alternative energies and remain dependent on fossil fuels, then no matter what we do global warming will continue to occur.
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While I applaud his desire to save the local environment, I do not applaud his “carbon neutral” talk, especially since the e-mails from the CRU came to light showing that the whole global warming (especially caused by humans, denoted as AGW) is pretty much hogwash and wrong.