As cultural norms change and flying falls increasingly out of vogue in Scandinavia, SAS is trying to recast the narrative and declare itself as a trendsetter on environmental stewardship. Hot towels have become a casualty of this most valiant effort…
Skift sat down with Linnea Malmberg, the head of Onboard Concept and Service at SAS. As SAS seeks to recast itself as an environmentally-conscious airline rather rather than a carbon-emitting behemoth, a number of initiatives have been introduced. Those include:
- More plant-based dishes
- Locally-sourced ingredients
- Frequent changes to onboard meals (4x week), since they are fresh and based upon seasonal ingredients [on shorthaul flights]
- Drink stirrers made of wood rather than plastic
And that’s all well and good. But then she added this:
We are stopping with the hot towel service on short-haul flights because it’s a waste.
Whoa! Not so fast there.
We all value different things in business class, but I don’t think hot towels are ever “a waste”. In fact, few things in life are more refreshing than a hot towel on a cold day or a cool towel on a hot day. It’s just part of the business class experience. It’s also hygienic; by using it to clean our faces, then hands, then tray tables we cut down on the of illness. When we do that, we cut the consumption of waste since we go through so many tissues when sick.
Ok, maybe that’s a stretch…sort of like a stretch that the elimination of hot towels is “for the environment”.
Or maybe I’m just too cynical…
> Read More: SAS Worried As “Flying Shame” Grips Sweden
CONCLUSION
I’m sad to see SAS ditch towels on its shortest flights in its “SAS Plus” short-haul “business class” product. These hot towels were one of the last vestiges of premium cabin service in which SAS doesn’t even block middle seats any longer.
Oh, and my son fully agrees with me…
featured image: Christopher Doyle / Wikimedia Commons
Hot towels are reusable, not disposable. How are they wastes? If being environmental friendly means you shouldn’t have anything nice in life, they might just cancel business class service altogether, as having that extra stretch room means more pollution to the environment unnecessarily.
The environment, lol. That must be magic exhaust being emitted from their planes. Unicorn farts perhaps ?
Ditch the towels, especially those made of cotton; use recycled materials in the table settings ( placemats, serviettes), stop serving beef. All good.
The boy is so cute; great set of choppers. Time will fly and the tooth fairy will soon appear, costing a small fortune. You’ll be glad of these small economies in J that keep costs lower and help the planet.
Yet another self-righteous move by environmentalists that will have zero impact on the environment. Ridiculous!
I’ll start off by saying I’m pretty “meh” on the hot towel thing. They’re OK, I guess, but not something I get particularly excited about. I doubt I’ll even notice if an airline stops handing them out.
That being said, I’m – confused? – on how hot towels are “environmentally unfriendly” considering they’re reusable. It reeks of misusing environmentalism as an excuse to justify cost-cutting. And THAT riles me up…
In the case of SAS, I recall them being gauze-like and probably disposable.
The hot towels thing seems silly, because it is. They’re reuable so nothing is “wasted” save maybe the extra fuel needed to haul them? Which is probably too small to measure. If they wanted to do something truly environmentally friendly, they could begin to invest in biofuels for the planes.
What a cute kid you have, Matthew. 🙂
Also, f … SAS. It’s always Sweden dictating for all the rest of us. Surprise: pretty much no nation is as determined to buckle to whatever the globalists say as Swedes.
Personally, IDGAF about the environment. If the rest of you could stop flying that’d be great; lower prices and more room for me.
The for the environment thing is quite ludicrous. Just be honest and say its for cost cutting
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