Average CO2 per revenue passenger kilometre now stands at 70.7g- an improvement of 3.2% since 2012, making us one of the most carbon efficient airlines in Europe and beyond.
In the 2013 atmosfair Airline Index, TUIfly was named the most climate efficient airline worldwide with over a million passengers and most climate efficient charter airline (for the second year in a row), and also ranked Thomson Airways as the second most climate efficient for short haul flights.
In 2013, 3.8 million customers went on ‘greener and fairer’ holidays with the Group, up 1.8 million from 2012, and leaving a target of 4.2 million for 2014. The goal, as laid out in the Sustainable Holidays Plan, is to deliver 10 million ‘greener and fairer’ holidays over the three years to 2015, by measuring the number of customers we take to hotels with credible sustainability certifications*. We are committed to influencing more hotels to achieve credible sustainability certifications, so as to be assured that our suppliers are making continual sustainability improvements. This not only improves our sustainability performance, but also benefits our suppliers.
All these achievements relate to specific goals that have been outlined in the Sustainable Holidays Plan, which highlights four key areas of focus: Carbon, Destinations, Customers and Colleagues and within these areas are 20 stretching and measurable targets. Also in 2013, TUI UK & Ireland pioneered a scheme to support 40 of its differentiated hotels to achieve reductions in energy and water usage, resulting in average cost savings of 6% for energy and 13% for water, generating savings of nearly 2 million Euros.
Another example of TUI Travel’s commitment to sustainability was announced in December, in its partnership with Boeing on the 2014/15 ecoDemonstrator programme, which seeks to design, create and test high-tech sustainable developments for aircraft of the future.
Jane Ashton, Group Director of Sustainable Development, TUI Travel, said: ‘TUI Travel’s aim is to support sustainability change at scale, both across our own operations and the wider industry. We made a significant step towards this in 2013, when TUI Travel airlines’ carbon efficiency improvements exceeded our expectations, and we saw a major shift in the number of our hotel suppliers who have now achieved credible and independently-audited sustainability certification. We look forward to building on this in 2014, the 3rd and final year of our Sustainable Holidays Plan, as we strive to fulfil our 4 goals and 20 commitments.
*Credible sustainability certifications are those working with the Global Sustainable Tourism Council such as Travelife, and international environmental management standards such as ISO 14001 and EMAS.
-Ends-
For further information on TUI Travel’s commitment to sustainability to date, please see the sustainability pages of the annual report, released today.
Full details of our progress in sustainable development will be available in the Sustainable Holidays Report, which will be published in Spring.
TUI Travel PLC
TUI Travel PLC is one of the world’s leading international leisure travel groups operating in approximately 180 countries worldwide. It serves more than 30 million customers in over 31 source markets. Headquartered in the UK, the Group employs approximately 54,000 people and operates a pan-European airline group consisting of 141 aircraft. The company is organised and managed through three business Sectors: Mainstream, Specialist & Activity and Accommodation & Destinations. In the financial year ended 30 September 2012 TUI Travel had revenues of £14.5bn and an underlying operating profit of £490m.
For more information visit www.tuitravelplc.com/sustainability