Reducing, reusing and recycling
We’re always looking for new ways to reduce weight and waste onboard our flights, from how we design, source and make our products, to how they make their way on and off the plane.
We work with suppliers to trial and test replacement products onboard, using alternative materials, increasing the recycled content and minimising packaging where possible.
Highlights
We’ve reduced or replaced 90% of virgin single use plastic inflight items by weight, that’s the equivalent of 60m flown items this includes:
o 7.3m pieces of plastic cutlery items replaced with pressed cardboard
o 11m individual water bottles removed and replaced with canned wine or our crew pouring service
o 5.9m individual wine bottles removed and replaced with canned wine
o 28m plastic economy glasses moved to 95% recycled content
o 6.6m hot meal containers replaced with Bagasse, a material from sugarcane
Refreshed amenity kits
Our amenity kits have removed 9.5 tonnes of plastic each year.
Plastic bags removed
Headsets are now protected by charity envelopes, saving 16 tonnes per year.
No plastic stirrers
We use stirrers made of bamboo, saving 6.5 tonnes per year.
No plastic straws
We carry a small number of paper straws for those that need them.
To save waste on food waste, customers in Upper Class can now view a menu and decide what they’d like ahead of their flight, and we plan to extend this to our Premium customers in 2023.
