SriLankan Airlines and Airbus bring Future by Airbus initiative to Sri Lanka
Monday, 28 October 2013 00:59
-
- {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}
SriLankan Airlines and Airbus held ‘The Future by Airbus’ presentation in Colombo on Friday 25 October. The event showcased Airbus’ vision of sustainable aviation in 2050 and beyond through a special screening of ‘Smarter Skies’ – a 20 minutes movie.
Airbus also presented its vision for a more sustainable world, its global 20 year global market forecast and talked about the future of flight, relevant innovations and talent.
‘Smarter Skies’ is the latest instalment in The Future by Airbus which looks beyond aircraft design and focuses on more efficient operations both in the air and on the ground. Whether it is about flying in formation along ‘express skyways’ or on free-glide approaches, ‘Smarter Skies’ looks for innovative ideas to cut time, delays and emissions.
Whilst some concepts may remain an engineer’s dream, Airbus is already working on the development and use of sustainable fuels and supporting plans for more efficient air traffic management.
Sharing benefits
of air travel
Airbus believes that in the future more people should be able to share in the benefits of air travel; that a more connected world can also be a more sustainable world; and that the right combination of technology and talent – along with the right investment, support and cooperation – can make this happen.
SriLankan Airlines and Airbus teamed up to share these “out of the box” concepts with Sri Lanka’s future engineers. Workshops were jointly hosted for 50 school students from five different areas, covering a large spectrum of schools in Sri Lanka.
This team-work was a result of Airbus and The Little Engineer’s (TLE) regional partnership, which aims at inspiring and instilling a passion for science and technology at an early age. For SriLankan Airlines working with young people is a key part of the company’s corporate social responsibility program to help develop Sri Lankan talents.
‘The Little Engineer’
“Along with state civil aviation authority and through joint programs with universities, we are already working towards promoting engineering education among students,” said Kapila Chandrasena, CEO of SriLankan Airlines. “We are proud to join forces with Airbus in bringing ‘The Little Engineer’ to young Sri Lankan students to give them a taste of engineering, excite them about aviation because they are our future.”
“In recent years Sri Lanka has seen a boom in air traffic due to the strong growth in tourism. At Airbus we want to support this growth not only by providing state of the art aircraft but also by fostering young talents and developing the brightest workforce for tomorrow’s aviation industry,” said Fouad Attar, Managing Director Airbus Middle East. “The joint hosting of The Little Engineer workshops is designed to instil a passion for innovation and engineering amongst Sri Lankan youth, and prepare them to be the next generation of aviation experts.”
Earlier this year Airbus announced a regional partnership with TLE as a result of on-going efforts to inspire and instil a passion for science and technology at an early age. It aims through this partnership to engage with more than 600 students the Middle East in 2013.
