Etihad Airways takes delivery of flagship ‘Greenliner’

Dubai: Etihad Airways on Thursday morning took delivery of its first Boeing 787 ‘Greenliner’, a Dreamliner jet that will be used to test various sustainable initiatives.

The jet, which has special livery with green colours, flew out from Boeing’s manufacturing facilities in the city of Charleston in South Carolina, USA, and landed at Abu Dhabi International Airport.

The so-called ‘Greenliner’ is part of a sustainability programme by Etihad Airways in which research will be conducted during flights to find ways to reduce the carbon footprint of every journey. This will include everything from ways to reduce flight times to cut fuel consumption to ways to make an aircraft lighter through the use of better materials on-board.

At the Dubai Air Show in November 2019, Etihad signed a deal with Boeing to look into limiting the carbon footprint of aircraft and reducing fuel costs.

Etihad’s aircraft fleet already includes another 37 Dreamliners, and the Abu Dhabi airline said each one of those will eventually be used as a test bed for research on sustainable initiatives.

The flagship Greenliner that landed in Abu Dhabi on Thursday used a different descent method that causes less fuel burn and emissions. Around 30 per cent of the fuel used on the flight was sustainable aviation fuel, Etihad said. Pilots on the aircraft also use special technology that provides real-time insight into improving efficiency.