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Dave

HRH The Prince of Wales sees how British Airways is investing in sustainability

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His Royal Highness The Prince of Wales has toured British Airways’ engineering base in Cardiff, seeing first-hand the changes, large and small, which the airline is making as it works towards more sustainable flying.

In front of more than 400 BA staff, His Royal Highness was shown the nose-to-tail focus on sustainability from the heavy-weight investments in new fuel-efficient aircraft, to the smallest detail of using a light-weight solder in aircraft repairs, bringing down the carbon footprint of each journey.

British Airways is forensically assessing its entire operation to find the little changes which add up to a big change of direction.


His Royal Highness The Prince of Wales was shown around a Boeing 787-9, one of the world’s most efficient aircraft. British Airways is investing in a further 73 fuel-efficient and quieter aircraft to arrive before 2024.
  • Each First-Class duvet is now made from 19 recycled plastic bottles.
  • Replacing seats on short-haul aircraft with new lighter weight versions saves 9,100 tonnes of CO2 per year. That’s equivalent to more than 350 return flights from London to Berlin.
  • British Airways now taxis to the runway using a single engine taxi on short haul flights, saving 3,700 tonnes of CO2 per year, equivalent to more than 100 return flights from London to Madrid.
  • The airline’s lighter cabin trolleys save 5,000 tonnes of CO2 per year; that’s a saving equivalent to more than 300 return flights from London to Paris.
  • BA now retract landing lights earlier on our A320 fleet, burning less fuel and saving 8,000 tonnes of CO2 per year; a saving equivalent to 150 return flights from London to Athens.
  • Plastic swizzle sticks have been replaced with bamboo versions, saving 45 tonnes of plastic per year.
  • The plastic wraps on bedding have been replaced by paper bands. That adds up to more than 19 million pieces of plastic which have been removed.

British Airways’ Chairman and Chief Executive, Alex Cruz, who led the tour, said:

It has been an honour to showcase our work in this area to His Royal Highness today. Every decision we make at British Airways now starts with a simple question: what does that mean for our sustainability aspiration? We’re now offsetting carbon emissions on all our flights within the UK, and were the first airline group to commit to achieving net zero carbon emissions by 2050.

We’ve got a lot of work to do, but keeping an eye on the detail as well as the bigger picture is the only way to get there.

Louise Evans, Director of Communications & Corporate Responsibility said:

From new, quieter and more fuel efficient aircraft to sustainable swizzle sticks that eliminate the use of single use plastic, we’re carrying out a huge transformation of the way we fly.

His Royal Highness opened this engineering base 26 years ago, and we were delighted to welcome him back to our engineering base here in Cardiff so he can see for himself the steps we are taking to a sustainable future.

Contact your GTM Account Manager the next time you plan to fly on British Airways.


Paul

Austrian Airlines is turning plastic cups into fuel

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Since the end of 2018, Austrian Airlines flight attendants have been separating the plastic cups used by passengers from the rest of the waste. A disposal company then cleans and shreds them before delivering them to the ReOil pilot plant at the Schwechat Refinery. A process known as thermal cracking is used to produce synthetic crude from plastic waste.

This crude is then processed in the Schwechat Refinery into fuel or other raw materials for the plastics industry. With this recycling initiative, Austrian Airlines is supporting a circular economy that conserves resources.

The OMV ReOil pilot plant has been processing drinking cups used by Austrian Airlines passengers since January 2019.

Vera Renner, Vice President Cabin Operations of Austrian Airlines, commenting on the cooperation with the home carrier as part of OMV’s ReOil pilot project said,

Austrian Airlines is consistently striving to reduce waste on board our flights. Our flight attendants have been making a key contribution for many years by recycling. I am delighted that – together with OMV – we have been able to take another crucial step towards this goal on the initiative of the crew members from the Austrian Airlines “Fly greener” team“. 

Thomas Gangl, OMV Senior Vice President Refining & Petrochemicals said,

The exceptional properties of plastic as a material mean make it hard to imagine life without it. In the ReOil plant, we are able to turn the AUA drinking cups into synthetic crude and then process them into fuel or back into plastics. Our OMV research project allows us to close the circle and reduce waste. These joint efforts send a clear signal of how important conserving resources is to both of our companies. 


OMV has been exploring the potential of used plastics since 2011. After a test unit in the technology centre of the Schwechat Refinery yielded successful research results, the significantly larger ReOil pilot plant started operations in early 2018 in the Schwechat Refinery. 100 kilograms of used plastics can produce 100 litres of synthetic crude. 

The cooperation with OMV on the ReOil® project can be traced back to the initiative of the Austrian Airlines team from “Fly greener”. “Fly greener” is a project spanning the entire Lufthansa Group. Its goal is to reduce waste volumes and mitigate the environmental impact while optimizing the requisite processes on aircraft. Every Lufthansa Group airline is developing its own ideas and concepts to this end. Several years have already passed since Austrian Airlines started to sort various materials on board and send them for recycling. This involves PET bottles, glass bottles, tetra packs, cans, paper and newspapers. Various projects are currently underway to make air travel more efficient and more environmentally friendly across the group. 

To book your next flight on Austrian, contact your GTM Account Manager.