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SUSTAINABILITY STATEMENT
Reduction in aircraft weight
The less an aircraft weighs, the less fuel
it burns. We therefore look for ways to
minimise our aircraft load. In 2016, we
obtained approval to replace about 23kg
of flight documents from the cockpits
with 2kg electronic flight bags (ie tablets),
saving two litres of fuel and 6kg of carbon
emissions per flight. As of December
2017, we have been able to further reduce
the weight of manuals by another 9kg
(totalling 32kg), resulting in a total fuel
savings of 337,519kg (equivalent to
1,066 tonnes of carbon emissions). The
replacement of manuals with tablets also
reduces paper use and the manpower
required to print and replace old manuals.
In addition, we limit the amount of water
carried on board based on need, reducing
our carbon emissions by an average of
10kg per flight. We also use the latest
Base Coat Clear Coat (BCCC) system when
painting new livery, which halves the paint
thickness on our aircraft.
Flight Efficiencies
Partnering with GE Aviation, we have
redesigned various aspects of our flight
operations to be optimally fuel efficient.
• Performance Based Navigation (PBN)
procedures.
To date, we have spent
USD40 million to develop these
procedures, which use the aircraft’s
own navigational devices instead of
ground-based equipment to determine
the shortest possible approach
to a destination. PBN has been
implemented at 11 of 14 airports that
we fly to in Malaysia, enabling us to
save about 182 litres of fuel and 575kg
of carbon emissions per flight.
•
One-Engine Taxi (OET).
This entails
using only one engine when taxiing
out to the runway before take-off
and when taxiing in after landing.
landing gear as frequently as required we
are able to reduce our fuel consumption
by up to 2%, which is equivalent to 336kg
of fuel for a four-hour flight. We also
regularly wash our engine compressors,
each wash saving 0.2% of fuel per engine
amounting to savings of 171,000 litres of
fuel per month for the Group. Together,
these efforts resulted in a carbon
emissions reduction of more than 30,000
tonnes in 2016 - the equivalent of saving
nearly 149,000 trees. This represents
about 5% of AirAsia’s annual emissions.
Carbon Emissions
As a result of our fuel efficiency initiatives,
despite an 8% increase in capacity in
2017, we managed to lower our carbon
emissions from flight operations
minimally, from 2,667,469 tonnes of CO
2
equivalent (tCO
2
e) in 2016 to 2,666,866
tCO
2
e. Although emissions from ground
operations (ie from ramp vehicles)
increased by 93.4%, this represents an
insignificant portion of total emissions,
and our carbon efficiency, as measured
by emissions per passenger kilometre
(inclusive of cargo weight) has continued
to improve, from 85.14 grams of CO
2
e
per passenger km (gCO
2
e/pkm) in 2015
to 76.75 gCO
2
e/pkm in 2016 and 69.65
gCO
2
e/pkm in 2017.
As of 2017, we have also started to
measure the carbon emissions from
electricity usage at RedQ. This will serve
as a baseline for reduction targets to be
set in the future. As the table on the facing
page shows, electricity consumption
has been maintained between the range
of 273,000kW/h and 325,000kW/h
throughout the year.
The procedure saves about nine
litres of fuel per flight, reducing
carbon emissions by 28kg while also
reducing engine maintenance costs
and noise pollution. AirAsia recorded
total fuel savings of 2,929,582kg
from the operation, equivalent to
9,257.48 tonnes of carbon emissions.
Other than Malaysia, the system is
also employed by our associates in
Thailand, Indonesia and India, reducing
the Group’s carbon emissions by 5.53
million kg a year.
• Packs Off Take-Off
This initiative reduces fuel
consumption while enabling aircraft to
have higher thrust power during take-
off. For the year 2017, AirAsia saved
229,020kg of fuel from the initiative,
equivalent to 723.70 tonnes of carbon
emissions, while the Group achieved a
total saving of 500,961kg of fuel.
• Reduced Flap Landing
This reduces drag, enabling us to
conserve fuel and reduce noise
and emissions at the same time. It
translated into 1,685,148kg of fuel
savings, equivalent to 5,325.07 tonnes
of carbon emissions reduction for
AirAsia in 2017. Group-wide, we saved
a total of 3,693,815kg of carbon
emission.
• Idle Reverse Landing
Idle reverse landing reduces fuel
consumption, carbon emissions and
noise. Using this procedure, AirAsia
saved 684,229kg of fuel in 2017,
equivalent to 2,162.16 tonnes of carbon
emissions reduction. Group-wide, we
saved 1,830,308kg of fuel during the
year.
Aircraft Maintenance
Maintaining our aircraft in optimum
condition also plays an important role
in fuel management. By overhauling our
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AirAsia Group Berhad
SUSTAINABILITY
176