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Stakeholders

Isavia focuses on extensive collaboration with those stakeholders who rely on the services of the company and who are affected by its operations. Operations have an impact throughout the country and on all its inhabitants. Isavia has analysed over a hundred stakeholders – these can be classified as customers, employees, the community, the authorities and suppliers. 

Since 2017, Isavia has used the same list of stakeholders. The Executive Directors of all divisions have gathered information in consultation with their staff. Over a hundred stakeholders were classified in five main groups: customers, employees, the community, the authorities and suppliers. One of the company’s improvement projects currently under way is to review this list and draw up a stakeholder communication plan. This is to achieve the goal of ‘targeted and co-ordinated communication to external entities’.

In autumn 2018, Isavia hired the Swedish consultancy company Enact Sustainable Strategies to conduct interviews with the company’s stakeholders. The aim was to find out what major stakeholders consider to be the most important issues and topics as regards the company’s social responsibility. The results of these interviews, as well as the advice of Isavia’s social team, were taken into account when the company set its objectives for 2019 and decided upon the approach to take for its CSR Report.

THE COMMUNITY

There are extensive communications with local authorities and regional associations in the neighbourhood of the airport such as the Suðurnes municipalities, the City of Reykjavík, Akureyri, Ísafjörður, Fljótsdalshérað, Þórshöfn, Vopnafjörður, Húsavík and Vestmannaeyjar.

The company is working constantly to improve the way in which information is disseminated, as the activities of the company can have a considerable impact on local communities. This is particularly true of the Suðurnes area, as Keflavík Airport is the largest workplace in the area. Communications have been carried out at meetings with the town and municipal authorities, as well as other stakeholders. There is also close collaboration with the marketing agencies in North and East Iceland where, for example, work has been carried out on marketing efforts on direct flights to Akureyri and Egilsstaðir in collaboration with the Icelandic Route Development Fund.

Isavia also collaborates extensively with entities in the tourism sector such as the Travel Industry Association (SAF), the Icelandic Tourist Board, Promote Iceland and the Tourism Task Force. In addition, the company is a member of Iceland Tourism and Iceland Naturally and a sponsor of Inspired by Iceland. Isavia is also an active member of the port and transport group of the Icelandic Ocean Cluster, a collaborative forum for companies, most of which are directly involved in transport and port operations.

Isavia has been one of the sponsors of the consultation venue Arctic Circle from the very beginning, and employees take an active part in discussions on the issues facing the Nordic region.

Isavia has been one of the sponsors of the consultation venue Arctic Circle from the very beginning, and employees take an active part in discussions on the issues facing the Nordic region, whether in connection with air traffic in the Nordic area or in connection with ideas of developing a rescue services hub in Iceland.

In addition, Isavia regularly holds open meetings to provide information to the public and entities within the tourism sector as regards the company’s operations at Keflavík Airport, such as on construction and traffic forecasts within the travel industry. Isavia employees have also given talks at numerous open meetings that have been held by other entities.

In the field of flight navigation services, Isavia collaborates closely with service providers and adjacent flight control centres. The company participates in Borealis, a collaborative venue for nine flight navigation service providers in North Europe.


THE AUTHORITIES


Communications with the authorities take many forms. The state is the owner of the company, and it follows the general owner policies of the state in its operations. The Ministry of Finance and Economic Affairs has overall control of the shares, and formal communications are carried out at shareholders’ meetings and the Annual General Meeting. Other communications with the owner take place during meetings which are convened as needed.

The Ministry of Transport and Local Government plays a two-fold role in connection with operations of Isavia: 1) as the professional ministry for air traffic issues; and 2) as a business partner of the company as regards the running of the domestic airport system. The company has a seat on three committees and boards operated by the Ministry: the Professional Board for Aviation Issues, the Facilitation Board and the Transport Board (permanent representative). The company has regular professional communications with the Ministry on aviation issues and close collaboration as regards the implementation of the service agreement. The company has representatives in various Ministry committees dealing with aviation issues, including a seat on the committee responsible for formulation of Iceland’s aviation policy.

Isavia is also responsible for the implementation of two international agreements on flight navigation services. The ‘Joint Finance’ agreement applies to flight navigation services within the Icelandic flight information region (Reykjavík FIR) with 24 other states, and the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) is its monitoring body. The other agreement is with the Danish authorities for flight navigation services in part of the flight information region of Greenland.

Meetings are also held a few times a year with the Ministry of Industries and Innovation in connection with tourism issues. The Ministry has established a Flight Development Fund aimed at strengthening international flights to Akureyri and Egilsstaðir, and Isavia has a representative on the Board of the Fund. The company also has one representative in the Promote Iceland Board responsible for the ‘Inspired by Iceland’ and ‘Iceland Naturally’ marketing projects, which are intended to raise awareness of Iceland as a tourist destination. Meetings are also held with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Icelandic Coast Guard in connection with defence-related operations at Keflavík Airport and the airport’s organisational issues.

Isavia has a great deal of interaction with many public bodies, owing to the diversity of the company’s activities. The closest interaction is with the Icelandic Transport Authority, which issues operating permits for airports and flight controls and is responsible for the appropriate supervision of implementation and operations. Other monitoring bodies of note are the National Centre for Hygiene, Food Control and Environmental Protection, the Construction Authority, the Administration of Occupational Safety and Health, the Health Authorities, the National Planning Agency and the Environment Agency. Many public bodies have operating units within or in close collaboration with the company, such as the police, the Directorate of Customs, the National Civil Protection Authorities and the Coast Guard. The municipal bodies connected to the operation of Isavia are mainly the health authorities, fire protection and fire brigades.

Isavia is also monitored by and collaborates with foreign entities. The most important of these is the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO), a sub-organisation of the United Nations which establishes international standards for all main aspects of civil aviation and monitors the performance of states and service providers. The ICAO also monitors the performance of the abovementioned ‘Joint Finance’ agreement. As regard the company’s operations in Greenland and the Faroe Islands, Isavia is monitored by the Trafik- og byggestyrelsen (Transport, Construction and Housing Authority) in Denmark, and as regards collaboration on flight communications services in the North Atlantic, there is close communication with the Irish Aviation Authorities. In the arena of the Borealis collaboration, the company collaborates with the European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA).


Suppliers

Since Isavia is owned by the Icelandic state, the company is subject to the Act on Public Procurement. The company’s main purchases may be divided between operating purchases, service purchases and building construction. In 2017, changes were made to the legal environment and Isavia was able to make use of the provisions of Regulation No. 340/2017 on procurement by parties operating in the water, energy, transportation and postal service sectors.

Isavia’s purchasing department operates across all of the company’s divisions. In early 2018, Isavia’s tendering website was introduced and an electronic tendering process was launched. The company also began to utilise new tendering methods, such as a negotiated process following a publication of tendering specification. This method has yielded good results as regards price and quality. The purchasing department began introducing new purchasing processes, rules and systems in 2018, with particular focus on electronic communication with a view to maintaining and improving traceability in procurement.

All tender procedures and major price inquiries require basic eligibility of tendering companies, e.g. parties who are in default of withholding tax, public levies and statutory pension fund dues will be disqualified. There is also a chain-of-responsibili

All tender procedures and major price inquiries require basic eligibility of tendering companies, e.g. parties who are in default of withholding tax, public levies and statutory pension fund dues will be disqualified. There is also a chain-of-responsibility clause in all purchasing documentation.

Contracts also contain clauses prohibiting pseudo-contracting, and an employment relationship between parties is the governing principle in relations between the employees and the contractor. This is to ensure that all employee charges, of any denomination, are paid and that the provisions of collective wage agreements are complied with.

All Isavia contracts contain provisions on data protection which comply with new provisions laid down in EU data protection legislation, where appropriate. Finally, all of our contracts are accompanied by a copy of the Code of Conduct for Suppliers. The Code requires suppliers used by the company to adhere to the rules it contains and to ensure that their own suppliers do likewise. Upon request, suppliers must be able to demonstrate that these rules are being followed. The Code of Ethics for Suppliers is available on the Isavia website.

The proportion of Icelandic suppliers is 86%, and that of overseas suppliers is 14%, although there are no records detailing which of these are based outside the European Economic Area.