Oman Air turns off lights for Earth Hour 2012 

(MENAFN - Arab News) Lights went out across Oman Air's headquarters in Muscat, as well as across its network destinations, as the carrier marked Earth Hour at 8.30pm (local time) on Saturday.

The airline was joined by tens of thousands of organizations and hundreds of millions of people around the world to mark Earth Hour by turning off lights for one hour to highlight the importance of tackling climate change.

Oman Air's headquarters in Muscat has taken the lead on behalf of the airline, and has been joined by its offices in Europe, the Middle East, South and South East Asia and Africa.

In addition, many of Oman Air's partners have participated in the initiative.

Earth Hour was launched in 2007 by international campaigning organization WWF.

Since then, the initiative has captured the imagination of people around the world and, last year, 5,200 cities in 135 countries took part, turning lights off and encouraging continuing efforts to reduce energy consumption.

Climate change and energy saving are amongst the greatest challenges facing the modern world and minimizing energy use in all areas of lives is vital.

Oman Air, as a responsible corporate citizen, is committed to highlighting the importance of tackling climate change, and to encouraging as many people as possible to take part in Earth Hour, right across its network.

To that end, Oman Air had also asked its staff to take part at home by switching off their lights for an hour at 8.30pm on Saturday.

Wayne Pearce, Oman Air's chief executive officer, stated: "We are pleased to be supporting the Earth Hour initiative by switching the lights off at our premises and encouraging our employees to do so at home."