Emirates Group releases 5th Annual Environmental Report

The Emirates Group, which comprises Emirates airline and dnata, has released its fifth annual environmental report for 2014-2015.
Audited by Pricewater-houseCoopers, the report presents environmental performance data across a range of activities, including airline operations, dnata’s cargo and ground-handling businesses and a wide range of commercial activities on the ground — from engineering to catering.
Sheikh Ahmed bin Saeed Al-Maktoum, chairman and chief executive, Emirates Airline and Group, said: “Emirates and dnata continue to invest in business growth in tandem with customer demand and global opportunities. As the scale of our operations expands, we are ever more conscious of our responsibility toward the environment and communities we serve. We are aware that our efforts to reduce resource use will not only reduce our environmental impact, but will also help build our business resilience.”
Airline operations constitute the main environmental impact of the Emirates Group. In 2014-2015, Emirates continued to add new aircraft to its fleet, retire older aircraft, and prioritize fuel-saving operational techniques.
Emirates’ flight operations specialists worked with agencies in countries as far afield as the United States, Austria, France, Malta, the Seychelles, Ethiopia, Kenya and Pakistan as well as Dubai’s neighboring emirate of Sharjah to introduce or validate new performance-based navigation procedures.
Emirates added 24 new aircraft and retired 10 older aircraft in 2014-2015, maintaining an average fleet age of 75 months.
Key highlights this year include a continued reduction in aircraft noise emissions, a modest improvement in overall fleet fuel efficiency despite external operational challenges, and improvements in ground vehicle fuel efficiency.
On the ground, dnata in Dubai took delivery of 30 new electric tractors to replace diesel-powered vehicles for use at Dubai International Airport.
A change in the UAE government’s regulations also helped to bring down the amount of pollutants produced by ground vehicles.