Standard Life Investments (SLI) has announced that the Standard Life ethical funds will no longer invest in airline stocks.

This new policy has been adopted as a direct result of feedback received in the Standard Life 2007 annual ethical investor survey in which 30% of respondents stated that they would prefer a complete exclusion of airline stocks from the funds.

Julie McDowell, head of socially responsible investment for SLI, said: “The views of investors in our ethical fund range are of paramount importance to us. We are unique in carrying out an annual survey to understand investor wishes and concerns and we seek, wherever possible, to reflect those concerns in the criteria applicable to our ethical funds.

“The Standard Life Ethical Committee, which is comprised of senior Standard Life managers and three individual investors in the ethical funds, has considered the results of our 2007 ethical investor survey. In light of the sizeable percentage of our investors wishing to avoid investment in airlines, the Ethical Committee has decided that our ethical policy should be adapted to reflect these views. I am sure that investors welcome the fact that they play an important part in helping to shape our ethical fund criteria.”

Standard Life Investments currently manages £588.5m over its ethical fund range which includes the UK Ethical, Ethical Corporate Bond, European Equity Ethical, Life Ethical and Pension Ethical funds. The fund manger this year also launched an ethical investing micro-site which features fund manager interviews, ethical stock stories, ethical guidelines and literature of interest to the ethically minded investor.