United unveils $40m plan to cut carbon footprint

TNN

Chicago: Their livery is blue but, for

United Airlines

, the skies are green. The US airline that operates almost 4,900 flights daily to five continents recently announced a $40-million investment vehicle focused on accelerating the development of sustainable

aviation fuels

and other technologies to cut its

carbon footprint

.

The carrier was the first in the world to incorporate low-carbon fuel in regular operations, moving beyond test programmes, and is the only

US carrier

to continuously use cleaner fuel since 2016. Among all the airlines in the world, United holds more than 50% of all purchase commitments to using sustainable fuels. Earlier this year, it agreed to buy up to 10 million gallons of such fuel over two years.

“United has been an industry leader in environmental sustainability — including being the first US carrier to announce a bold pledge to cut our carbon footprint in half by 2050 relative to 2005,” said

Scott Kirby

, United’s president, at the company’s

FlightPlan 2020

programme in the Chicago headquarters. “We aspire to be the airline leading the revolution to fight

climate change

, and this new initiative will further empower us to reduce our impact on the environment and fly towards a more sustainable future.”

Earlier in 2019, the US major showed its heart is in the right place by introducing the most accessible airline entertainment system in the world. It is customised for flyers with varying vision, hearing or mobility requirements to enable them to enjoy the full range of United’s in-flight entertainment. It was developed over three years with

Panasonic Avionics

, and a huge pat on the back for the airline came when it was awarded the highly coveted

Crystal Cabin Award

for

Inflight Entertainment and Connectivity

at the annual

Aircraft Interiors Expo

in Germany this April.

The system recently debuted on United’s 787-10 Dreamliner fleet, and will be extended to the other jets. It offers, among other facilities, text-to-speech with reading granularity options, customisable voice volume, speed and pitch, customisable text size, high contrast text options, custom messaging for customers with hearing disabilities and additional navigation options for those unable to swipe on the screen or use handset features.

(The writer was in Chicago on the invitation of United Airlines)