PETALING JAYA: In an attempt to ‘go green,’ AirAsia with its multiple environment friendly efforts, including the “Green24” campaign, has managed to reduce up 22,602 tonnes of CO2 emissions in 2015.
Its Group Chief Pilot, Rajesh Gill, said the campaign, launched at the end of 2014, has carried out over 40 initiatives to conserve the environment.
“One of the many initiatives was when we installed sharklets on our A320 aircrafts.
“If you fly with them you will see the part of the wing is moving skywards, this reduces the amount of drag which in turn reduces the amount of fuel needed, therefore results in reduced amount of greenhouse gas emission,” Rajesh said adding that despite the cost, it was a great way to kick start the initiative.
Rajesh said other initiatives the group took included carrying lesser weight onboard as it would result in less fuel use.
"We used to carry up to 23kg of manuals and books on board, now all that has been transferred into tablets.
"An A320 aircraft has a water tank that can carry up to 200 liters of water, but we change the amount according to the duration of the flight.
"If the flight is from Kuala Lumpur to Penang, we don’t need that much of water,” he said explaining that the water was needed for the wash basin and toilets on board.
He added that the most recent initiative by AirAsia India was watching the wastage of plastic water bottles and Malaysia was in the beginning stages of starting the initiative as well.
Rajesh pointed out that even before the campaign, AirAsia had already carried out efforts to save the environment.
"Four years ago, we started the practice of switching of one engine when we are taxiing.
"We realise that we did not need two engines for that and this has helped us to reduce our carbon emissions as well,” he said and AirAsia in Indonesia, Thailand and Philippines were following suit.
Rajesh stressed that there was a common misconception that the aviation industry was the primary contributor to pollution via greenhouse gases, when in actual fact it only contributes 12 percent of emissions globally.
As a part of the Green24 campaign, 50 AirAsia volunteer divers will be conducting a beach and reef clean up on May 7 in Pattaya.
