Hamad International Airport (HIA) in Qatar will inaugurate its current expansion in October 2022, increasing the airport’s capacity to 58 million passengers per year.
This inauguration forms part of the airport’s overall development plans. The final phase of expansion will begin in early January 2023 and is expected to be completed within the next two and a half years, increasing the airport’s capacity to approximately 70 million passengers a year.
To increase its sustainability, the airport has taken part in IATA’s Aviation Carbon Exchange (ACE) using IATA Clearing House (ICH). The ACE is a centralized marketplace where airlines and other aviation stakeholders can trade CO2 emission reduction units for compliance or voluntary offsetting purposes. The ACE has been designed to offer a secure trading environment and transparency in terms of price and availability of emission reduction units. It’s also intended to simplify the process for air carriers to access carbon markets to achieve their decarbonization targets. According to the airport, Qatar Airways was its first carrier to make a transaction on the ACE using ICH.
Akbar al-Baker, group chief executive of Qatar Airways, said, “This expansion will be a vital part of the future success of Qatar Airways group and the country’s preparation to hold the FIFA World Cup and beyond. In 2021, Qatar Airways committed to use sustainable aviation fuel for at least 10% of combined fuel volumes by 2030, provided that a few suppliers produce more SAF. This will help us get economies of scale to bring down the price in order to sustain our industry. At Qatar Airways we are at the forefront of environmental protection, taking our responsibility seriously and remaining steadfast to protect the planet for our future generations.”
“As we recover, our collective goal to achieve net zero carbon emissions by 2050 will require an industry-wide and collaborative effort. The aviation industry is fully committed to making the net zero carbon emissions a goal, a reality. And airlines around the globe are already undertaking an extensive range of measures to reduce aviation emissions. But we need to keep one thing in mind. The aviation industry is unfairly blamed for global warming; the industry contributes less than 3% of the emissions while oil companies are not producing SAF in enough quantities. Despite that, we are still the biggest target. We really need to educate people on the importance that aviation plays in various sectors such as tourism, job creation, people-to-people connectivity and the wider global economy.”