For the second consecutive year, Etihad Airways, the national airline of the UAE, has been honored with the prestigious title of Environmental Airline of the Year 2023 in the esteemed Airline Ratings awards.

In addition to being named the Environmental Airline of the Year, Etihad Airways also stood third in the prestigious “Top Ten Airline” awards by Airline Ratings. This accolade recognizes Etihad Airway’s commitment to providing exceptional comfort, innovation, value, and safety across all classes, including economy, business, and first class.

Etihad Airways showcased its significant strides in sustainability in its latest sustainability report, published in May 2023. The report highlighted a notable accomplishment of reducing CO2 emissions per Revenue Tonne Kilometer (RTK) by 26 percent. This remarkable achievement can be attributed to Etihad’s flagship sustainability initiatives, such as the ‘Greenliner program’ that utilizes their Boeing 787 Dreamliners as flying test-beds, as well as the implementation of the Sustainable50 A350-1000 aircraft. By the conclusion of 2021, the program had garnered more than 50 partners, and by the end of 2022, it had successfully worked in over 40 ecoflights.

Steps taken by ethiad in order to ensure environmentalism:

The aviation industry took a pioneering step towards combatting climate change by establishing the world’s first targets for CO2 reductions in 2008. Known as CORSIA (Carbon Offsetting and Reduction Scheme for International Aviation), this initiative commits airlines to achieving carbon neutral growth starting from 2019 and aims for net-zero emissions by 2050. Ethiad is a voluntary participant in COSIA Pilot phases. It has implemented more such things like Emmissions trading schemes, science based target initiatives, Ethiad ESG loans, etc.

Some highlights as pointed out in the report are:

In 2012, Ethiad’s first flight using bio-fuel flew from Washington DC to Abu Dhabi. In and around 2020, Greenliner programs and green ambassador programmes of Ethiad came into place. In and around 2021, the airline launched carbon offset programmes. Last year, it came up with conscious choices programme and signed an MOU with World Energy.

Antonoaldo Neves, group chief executive officer of Etihad Aviation Group, said, “We take great pride in reducing our CO2 RTK by 26 percent. This achievement is a testament to the dedication and efforts of our team to drive our sustainability agenda and we thank them for their contributions.”