Airberlin is the first airline to have been awarded the
ÖkoGlobe 2011. The environmental award for pioneering innovations promoting
sustainable mobility was conferred on Airberlin for its corporate program
for “Eco-efficient Flying”. The award was presented in Karlsruhe by the
insurance group DEVK and the ÖkoGlobe Institute.
“Airberlin is very proud to be awarded the ÖkoGlobe. This
underlines the numerous efforts undertaken by Germany’s second largest
airline for the purpose of making flying as environmentally compatible as
possible,” remarked Tim Haferl, Corporate Director Flight Operations, in
Karlsruhe on Tuesday evening.
The “Eco-efficient Flying” program includes a catalogue
of measures relating to the areas of technology and flight operations as
well as operations and controlling that have been introduced to save costly
fuel and avoid environmentally harmful emissions. The catalogue of measures
is the result of inter-departmental coordination at Airberlin, which was
implemented in 2008 and is now a constant feature.
Outstanding examples of emission control include the
weight reduction on board Airberlin aircraft. Lighter seats, the paperless
cockpit, trolleys made of reduced weight aluminum and new carpets have saved
5,000 tons of aviation fuel.
Airberlin’s air crew will continue to be trained in
flying procedures designed to reduce both pollution and noise.
Constant fleet modernization and streamlining of the
fleet structure represent the most significant contribution to Airberlin’s
improved environmental balance sheet. In 2010 the last Boeing 737-300s, 757s
and 767s were retired from the fleet. The airline had managed to increase
emissions savings from 34,300 tons of carbon dioxide in the previous year to
45,700 tons, which corresponds to the pollution emitted by an Airbus A330 on
more than 300 flights from Dsseldorf to New York.
In recognition of these improvements Airberlin was
awarded the ึkoGlobe for the category “Vehicle innovations in public
transport”. It was the fifth year that this award was presented and the
first time it went to an airline, which now stands alongside companies such
as Deutsche Bahn and car manufacturers Daimler and Toyota.
The decision of the panel of six judges, chaired by Prof.
Ferdinand Dudenh๖ffer, is based on a points system. All the projects
submitted were assessed in terms of their sustainability and their
combination of ecological, economic and social factors. Feasibility and
implementation, sustainability and the price-performance ratio were aspects
that determined the number of points awarded.
In recent years Airberlin has considerably reduced the
age of its fleet in preparation for future eco-political challenges. The
company believes that these efforts are considerably thwarted by the
aviation tax. This year alone the aviation tax is costing Airberlin 180
million euros, even though the airline, at 3.6 liters per 100 revenue
passenger kilometers, has the lowest fuel consumption among European
scheduled carriers.
