The Emirates Group has published its third annual environment report. It reveals improvements in Emirates' fuel efficiency and reduction of carbon dioxide emissions as the airline added new, modern aircraft and retired older, less efficient ones.
Covering the 2012-2013 fiscal year, the audited report analyzed environmental performance data from a range of group activities, including airline operations, dnata's cargo and ground handling businesses and a wide range of commercial activities on the ground -- from engineering to catering.
The report's aim is to understand the group's environmental impact, as well as identifying opportunities to improve and capture best practice across the 68,000 strong workforce.
With airline operations constituting the main environmental impact of the Emirates Group, total fuel efficiency for all passenger and freighter flights improved by 0.29 percent, dropping to 0.3103 liters per ton kilometer (L/TK). Similarly, carbon dioxide emissions dropped to 0.767 grams of CO2 per ton kilometer (gCO2/TK), improving efficiency by 0.3%.
During the reporting period, Emirates retired or canceled the leases of six aircraft and took delivery of 34 aircraft.
Overall, Emirates airline operates one of the youngest and most efficient fleets in the world. Emirates' average fleet age is six years versus the IATA average fleet age of 11.7 years.
This directly impacts Emirates' fuel efficiency, which is 15.7 percent better than IATA's 2012 forecast industry average, and its carbon dioxide emissions efficiency, which was 16.6 percent better than the IATA average.
"At Emirates, we remain committed to operating as an environmentally responsible company," said Sheikh Ahmed bin Saeed Al-Maktoum, chairman and CEO, Emirates Airline and Group.
"This report illustrates our continuing efforts to improve our environmental efficiency, in the air and on the ground," said the CEO.
"We are pleased that the induction of new modern, more ecologically efficient aircraft helped to make an improvement in the fuel and emissions efficiency of our fleet. Our employees play a key and integral role in ensuring we minimize our environmental impact and in driving efficiencies across the group," he said.
Copyright 2013 - Arab News, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia
