M A N A G E M E N T D I S C U S S I O N A N D A N A L Y S I S A N N U A L R E P O R T 2 0 2 1 0 7 3 SUSTAINABILITY Aviation Fuel (SAF) committee to assess the operational and financial feasibility of uti l ising SAF and wi l l soon be implementing voluntary carbon offsetting so guests can choose to contribute to offsetting projects. The other top sustainability priority in 2021 has been to keep our Allstars and guests safe from the pandemic. In addition to the standard operating procedures (SOPs) that have been implemented on the ground and inflight starting from 2020, we have done all we can to encourage our Allstars and the public to be vaccinated. Vaccination corners were set up in RedQ and RedHouse to provide free shots to Allstars and their families in Malaysia and Indonesia. Once vaccinated, our Allstars contributed to others becoming protected by volunteering at various Mega Vaccination Centres in the Klang Valley. With rapid development of our Digital arm and the sheer volume of transactions taking place every day on our site/app, we are also enhancing our cybersecurity by aligning with international best practices and standards, especially the US National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) Cybersecurity Framework and the ISO 27001 - Informat ion Secur i ty Management System standards. We are pleased to announce that, in November 2021, we became ISO 27001-certified. We have also established a dedicated governance committee that proactively manages and monitors the Group’s information security due diligence to protect data belonging to our customers, employees, and all relevant stakeholders. OUTLOOK The new year commenced with the emergence of a new variant of concern, Omicron, which has spread widely and rapidly. While being more contagious than some of the previous variants, many leading experts agree that it is not as severe with proportionally low hospitalisation rates. We therefore remain cautiously optimistic that this is the beginning of the end of the pandemic. Many countries in Asean are already opening their borders to international tourists thanks to high vaccination rates, better education and testing, as the world is learning to live with Covid. At AirAsia, we have been bringing more and more of our aircraft out of hibernation as travel restrictions gradually ease, in order to meet strong pent-up demand. After almost two years of having their wings clipped, people simply cannot wait to travel again. We believe all the signs point towards regional air travel returning to some measure of normalcy within the year and that international air travel will recover rapidly throughout 2022 and the years ahead. Meanwhile, we will maintain our focus on creating value in our portfolio businesses, all of which are expanding exponentially as they are still in the early stages of development. Each business represents huge growth potential which Capital A is committed to realising. Our goal is to ensure these portfolio businesses become leaders in their respective fields in Malaysia and across our key markets. As a Group, we have been stress-tested many times before and always come out stronger. This time will be no different. Given the reality of climate change and the airline industry’s contribution to emissions, reducing our carbon footprint is currently one of our top sustainability priorities; and we are pleased to share that significant progress has been made on this front during the year. Of note, we reviewed our climate strategy to ensure alignment with the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO)’s target for the industry to have net zero emissions by 2050 wh i l e al so tak i ng i nto consideration the Task Force on ClimateRelated Financial Disclosure (TCFD). This is quite an ambitious undertaking but we are already building the foundations for a low-carbon future. In addition to managing our own emissions through various operational initiatives, we have been engaging actively with the relevant civil aviation authorities in Malaysia, Indonesia and the Philippines to support ICAO’s State Action Plan on Emissions Reduction. We have formed a Sustainable
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy ODU0MjU5