Etihad Airways, the national airline of the UAE, was the first airline in the region to operate a flight without any single-use plastics on board.
Flight EY484 departed Abu Dhabi on 21 April, landing in Brisbane on 22 April – Earth Day, in a bid to raise awareness of the effects of plastic pollution.
Buzz, Etihad’s current supplier of amenity products, collaborated with the airline to provide sustainable amenity kits, eco-plush toys and award-winning eco-thread blankets, produced out of recycled plastic bottles.
Etihad worked with suppliers to ensure products were not wrapped in single-use plastics. For others, more innovative products had to be sourced including Cupffee’s, edible coffee cups, made entirely out of natural grain products.
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The airline identified over 95 single-use plastic products used across aircraft cabins, most of which were replaced with eco-friendly alternatives including cups, cutlery, dishes, headset bags, cart seals and toothbrushes. Once removed from this flight, Etihad prevented over 50 kilograms of plastics from being landfilled.
Where suitable replacements could not be sourced, these items were not loaded.
Etihad has also committed to remove up to 20 per cent of the single-use plastic items on board by 1 June 2019.
The milestone flight is part of Etihad’s ongoing commitment to the environment, to go beyond Earth Day celebrations, and pledge to reduce single-use plastic usage by 80 per cent not just in-flight, but across the entire organisation by the end of 2022.
Tony Douglas, Group Chief Executive Officer, Etihad Aviation Group, said: “There is a growing concern globally about the overuse of plastics which can take thousands of years to decompose. We discovered we could remove 27 million single-use plastic lids from our inflight service a year and, as a leading airline, it’s our responsibility to act on this, to challenge industry standards and work with suppliers who provide lower impact alternatives.”