Turkish Airlines noted the steps and gains its achieved so far as part of its efforts to promote sustainability in its operations being among the world's largest airlines operating to over 300 destinations in five continents/
The Turkey flag carrier said its environmental campaign is implemented in every area of its operations from air cargo to catering onboard, from aircraft MRO to ground services at the airports, and most recently, the flag carrier's latest initiative was to use environmentally friendly fuel during its Istanbul – Paris flight on February.
In its announcement, Turkish Airline said it also plans to increase the frequencies and destinations that use this fuel which is now being used on one flight per week for Paris, Oslo, Gothenburg, Copenhagen, London and Stockholm flights.
"As Turkish Airlines, we are the airline that flies to more countries than any other with 128 countries in our flight network and every destination we fly to has its own unique worthiness waiting to be discovered," said Prof. Dr. Ahmet Bolat, Turkish Airlines chairman of the board and the executive committee.
"With this perspective, we are optimizing all of our operations with sustainable endeavors and protect our world for the future generations. Turkish Airlines will continue to fly in the blue of the sky for the green of the ground."
Sustainability initiatives cited
Among the sustainability initiatives of the airline include recycling rainwater turning it into usable water. In 2021, Turkish Airlines said 54% of the facility's water usage was met with rainwater.
It added that with its US$1 billion revenue that year, the airline made a significant contribution to Turkiye's exports while ensuring that by treating the water that was used during these operations, company prevented the waste of 1.471 million liters of water which equals to usage of 59 thousand people.
Turkish Airlines noted that it also prevented 6,710 trees from being cut by recycling 632 tons of non-hazardous waste and ensured 39,119 m3 of soil stayed clean by recovery of 700 tons of hazardous waste.
Meanwhile, it added that Turkish Cargo supports the projects that ease international trade in accordance with its sustainability strategy like the Uganda Project, one of the country projects of The Global Alliance for Trade Facilitation, which aims to improve and grow the export of Uganda.
"Turkish Cargo provides training support for Ugandan personnel, sharing its operational experience to contribute towards digitalization and improvement in capacity for air cargo sector in Uganda," the airline said.
The carrier said electric vehicles of Turkish Ground Services (TGS) also travel approximately 38 thousand km every day — possessing 309 electric vehicles in 9 airports located in Istanbul and Anatolia.
The airline noted that it also saved enough fuel to equal 292 thousand trees being planted in a year from its fuel saving efforts.
"By productively adapting processes such as single engine taxi methods, route optimizations and flight center of gravity during planning to operations, flag carrier saved 37,820 tons of fuel and prevented 116,809 tons of carbon emissions from being released to atmosphere during 2021," Turkish Airlines said.
It added that this equals to 292 thousand trees being planted or 473 flights between Istanbul and New York with wide body aircraft.
Operating with one of the world’s youngest fleets, flag carrier airline aims to increase its fuel-saving by enhancing its fleet with new generation aircraft.