The carpets’ light weight design will help reduce flight weight and in turn fuel costs
SriLankan Airlines, the flag carrier of Sri Lanka and a member airline of the Oneworld airline alliance, is set to become one of the first airlines in South Asia to introduce eco-friendly carpets onboard its aircraft after a successful trial.
According to the airline, these eco-friendly carpets, sourced from Lantal Textiles in Switzerland, will help SriLankan Airlines reach another ‘milestone’ in its journey toward a reduced carbon footprint through gradual fuel efficiency improvements.
SriLankan says that the carpets’ light weight design will help reduce flight weight and in turn fuel costs. Once the fleet is fitted out with the carpets, SriLankan Airlines’ jet fuel consumption will decrease leading to savings of about LKR 21 million (INR 5.3 mn) annually. The reduced use of fuel will additionally enable the airline to shrink its yearly carbon footprint by approximately 248.79 tonnes.
Maria Sathasivam
“We are excited to debut sustainable carpets onboard our aircraft, which brings us a step closer to realizing our long-term plan of making our inflight experience more eco-friendly in tune with contemporary traveller expectations. We appreciate that travellers are becoming increasingly conscious about making ethical and sustainable lifestyle choices, as do businesses, and SriLankan Airlines is looking forward to embracing even more green solutions in its operations as we go forward,” says Maria Sathasivam, Manager, Product Development of SriLankan Airlines.
The statement adds that with an emphasis on sustainability, the carpets are lightweight and made of regenerated nylon, which uses materials that would otherwise end up in landfills. These include used carpet waste, used fabric waste, fabric scraps from mills, aquaculture nylon waste, and abandoned ocean fishing nets, also known as ghost nets. Besides being a green technology, it also uses significantly less crude oil, water and energy during production unlike in the manufacture of conventional virgin nylon.
The airline says its environmental sustainability strategy is multifaceted, with initiatives on carbon footprint and waste reduction, biodiversity conservation and environmental compliance running parallelly at any given time.
The statement adds that SriLankan was the first airline in Asia to introduce ‘Planet Friendly Flights’ back in 2009 and was named the second lowest carbon emitting airline in the Asia-Pacific in 2016 by Business Traveller. SriLankan Airlines’ signature upcycle project, ‘Mathaka,’ beat out 118 other submissions to win the Best Aviation Sustainability Program Award at the Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum (SMBR) Global Aviation Awards in December 2022.
