The less fuel an aircraft burns the better, in both ecological and economic terms. SWISS investigates every possibility of reducing an aircraft’s weight and thus its fuel consumption. If every flight performed by the SWISS Airbus short-haul fleet can be made just one kilo lighter, that will cut this fleet’s annual CO2 emissions by a substantial 16 tonnes.
SWISS has reduced its average specific fuel consumption to less than 4 l for every 100 passenger-kilometres. That is one of the lowest values in the entire airline sector. A key factor has been the replacement of the Boeing MD-11 long-haul fleet with Airbus A340 aircraft. This has cut SWISS’s long-haul fuel consumption by around 11%. This has reduced the annual CO2 emissions by some 100 000 tonnes - the equivalent of all the CO2 emissions generated in a year by all of SWISS’s services on the Zurich-Mumbai route.
SWISS is saving aircraft weight by installing new lighter seats. The conventional seating has been replaced by high-tech carbon-fibre seats throughout the SWISS European fleet.
Positive effects
- Enhancing passenger’s comfort
- Cutting the aircraft’s weight
- Reducing CO2 emissions
Customer benefits, cost savings and care for the environment are all being simultaneously achieved. The seat renewal reduces annual CO2 emissions by more than 800 tonnes – year after year.
