Travel Aug. 25, 2009 - 04:18AM JST ( 11 )

TOKYO —

Japan Airlines (JAL) has been honored with the World Savers Award by Condé Nast Traveler for being the most socially responsible airline among its peers in the category. The award seeks to recognize companies in the travel industry that have generously contributed back to society through its various business activities, particularly in the five key aspects of education programs, wildlife conservation, poverty alleviation, environmental or cultural preservation and health initiatives.

Contending with 36 finalists who were narrowed down from 100 applicants, Japan Airlines emerged the overall winner in the airline category - a new category added to the award this year, for having a program in every assessment area. The diverse approach by JAL to fulfill its responsibility as a corporate citizen scored it a total of 81.5 points out of 100 possible points by a panel of 20 distinguished academics, environmentalists and industry experts.

Japan Airlines was lauded in particular, for providing free transportation of supplies and aide personnel to Pakistan in October 2005 and to Indonesia in December 2004 and May 2006 after both regions were hit by severe earthquakes. On the environmental front, an aspect in which JAL is especially active in, JAL’s ambition to drastically reduce the amount of fuel consumed and the amount of green-house gases emitted in the course of its business, leading to proactive research into the use of biofuel and overall weight reduction of its aircraft through measures such as use of lighter-weight material for in-flight items, further contributed to the carrier’s recognition by Condé Nast Traveler.