UAE Business: Etihad ‘Green’ flight reduces carbon emissions by 72pc – Gulf Digital News

UAE Business: Etihad ‘Green’ flight reduces carbon emissions by 72pc – Gulf Digital News

Etihad Airways operated its most sustainable flight ever to reduce carbon emissions (CO2) by 72% in absolute terms compared to the equivalent flight operated in 2019. 

 

The flight leveraged the learnings and efficiencies developed over the last two years of Etihad’s comprehensive sustainability programme.

 

The London Heathrow to Abu Dhabi flight is part of the Etihad Greenliner Programme – a two-year partnership between Etihad and Boeing using Etihad’s Boeing 787 fleet as a test bed for sustainability improvements in partnership with organisations across the industry. It required huge collaboration across the aviation ecosystem to deliver a sustainable in-flight product, coordination with airspace management for optimised flight routing, new technology flight deck tools, sustainable aviation fuel (SAF), contrail reduction and airport handling processes. 

 

In an industry-first, EY20 was the first commercial flight to explore contrail-avoidance. Working with UK-based Satavia, the team identified potential areas of ice super-saturated regions in the atmosphere where harmful contrails are likely to form, and the flight route was adjusted to avoid these areas. Based on the original and adjusted flight plan, the strategy avoided the production of approximately 64 tonnes of CO2e, with a fuel penalty of only 100kg, or 0.48 tonnes CO2.

 

“These are noteworthy savings,” said Mohammad Al