dnata, a leading global air and travel services provider, has announced that it would invest $100 million in green operations in the next two years to further enhance environmental efficiency across its global network.
The company’s ongoing investment in infrastructure, equipment and process improvement will support it to achieve its strategic objectives and reduce its carbon footprint by 20 per cent by 2024, and by 50 per cent by 2030.
Group CEO Steve Allen said: “dnata has been making great progress on reducing carbon footprint, minimizing waste and reducing energy and water consumption across its operations. We will further increase our investments and efforts in strong cooperation with our partners to achieve our targets and preserve the environment for current and future generations.”
He pointed out that in recent years dnata has significantly invested in advanced technologies to optimize resources and improve operational efficiency across its facilities.
It installed renewable energy features, such as solar panels, heat recovery units and electric vehicle charging, at its existing facilities in the UK, Singapore and Ireland. The company will also incorporate carbon reduction initiatives in the construction and operation of its recently announced new cargo centres in The Netherlands and Iraq, he stated.
Choosing green options is a prime consideration in dnata’s fleet planning, too. It has increased investments in electric and hybrid ramp, ground support (GSE) and forklift equipment, and refurbished existing GSE with new technologies to further decrease emissions and update them to the latest safety and quality standards.
As a result, dnata became the first ground handler to successfully complete green aircraft turnarounds using only zero-emission GSE in the USA and UAE, he noted.
dnata’s catering team has invested in process improvement to minimize its environmental footprint. It has been working closely with many of its airline customers to analyse consumption trends and use predictive data to optimize the loading of F&B for in-flight catering.
Analysis of on-board data not only reduces food waste but also fuel burn associated with carrying excess weight.
According to him, dnata has also taken initiatives across its business units to conserve water consumption and recycle materials, such as paper, plastic, cardboard, wood, glass, metal, used cooking and mineral oils. Earlier this year, the company said it was committed to reducing its waste to landfill by 20 per cent by 2024.
dnata has embedded its environmental framework across its broad-spanning Travel businesses, aiming to empower customers to make better travel choices.
In the financial year 2021-22, dnata’s customer-oriented teams handled over 527,000 aircraft turns, moved 3 million tonnes of cargo, uplifted 39.9 million meals, and recorded a total transaction value (TTV) of travel services of $632 million.
