It is common practice for airlines to release financial and even statistics reports for certain time periods, but Etihad has gone one step further. The carrier has recently released its Sustainability Report for the 2020-2021 period, highlighting various green initiatives and their impact on operations.

Tony Douglas, CEO of Etihad Aviation Group, stated,

“Our sustainability report highlights our insistence on harnessing the opportunities that are available today, and commits to continuing to find solutions for the future. Many partners joined us on this journey over the last two years, and this report demonstrates the potential we have collectively, with an ambition to set the direction for 2022 and beyond. We need to be bold in facing this issue. We need to be decisive. There is no other way forward. That is why we have been insistent that we continue to focus on the question as a long-term strategic priority for our business, spearheaded by the Etihad Greenliner and Sustainabile50 programmes.”

Headline figures

While Etihad’s report goes into great detail about all of its green initiatives, the headline figures are enough to paint a rough overall picture. The carrier’s total emitted tonnes of CO2 has seen a rapid decline since 2018. The figure stood at a whopping 9,828,970 tonnes for 2018, before a slight drop to 9,108,970 the following year. But the number was slashed by more than half, to 4,280,074, in 2020.

An impressive feat, but the huge drop was probably due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on global aviation. For that reason, Simple Flying believes 2020 figures are not a fair indicator for evaluating Etihad’s sustainability performance. The trend continued in 2021 when global aviation traffic saw a slight recovery, and so did Etihad’s CO2 emissions to 4,310,592. As the industry seems to be on the onset of making a full recovery to pre-pandemic levels, 2022 figures will paint a much more accurate picture of the effect of Etihad’s many sustainability initiatives.

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The net zero dream

Etihad Airways, like many other airlines, has ambitious plans to reach net zero carbon emissions by the year 2050. The deadline may be almost three decades away, but the carrier is hard at work developing new and innovative ways to decarbonize its operations. This includes grand collaborations with various stakeholders like the Greenliner program, as well as not-so-publicized efforts like the use of electric ground support equipment.

While the seeds of Etihad’s efforts are yet to reap fruits, the carrier isn’t letting that stop itself from investing in future technologies. It is engaged in various partnerships and studies aimed at reducing emissions in several aviation operations, from the actual flight to everything around it. In addition, Etihad is also celebrating Earth Day over the coming week with 30 planned emission reduction flights.

What do you make of Etihad’s first-ever Sustainability Report? Do you think more airlines should follow suit and release a report card of their environmental performance for the year? Please, let us know your thoughts in the comments.