Changes in the wind for meals on Air NZ flights

‘‘We are on a journey to reduce the impact of our serviceware on the environment.’’ Leanne Geraghty Air New Zealand

It may have been a while since travellers have enjoyed a full meal on an international Air New Zealand flight but the next time they travel afar, the serving could look a bit different.

The national carrier has been trialling new, more sustainable ecoserviceware, switching out the singleuse plastic usually part of the meal packaging. The trial happened on recent services to the Cook Islands.

In place of the usual plastic, containers made from bagasse and rotable plastic were used. Bagasse is an agricultural byproduct made from plant fibre that is renewable and has a lower carbon footprint than traditional serviceware material. Rotable plastic is a product which can reused over and over.

Air NZ chief customer and sales officer Leanne Geraghty says the current serviceware is a decade old and needs a change up.

‘‘We are on a journey to reduce the impact of our serviceware on the environment by moving away from single-use plastics and trialling more sustainable serviceware across some of our international flights.’’

Also, as part of the trial, plastic cutlery was replaced by a bamboo alternative. The airline believes 28 million single use plastic dishes and knives, forks and spoons could be removed from inflight every year.

Many airlines around the world have removed, or pledged to remove, singleuse plastics.

A couple of years ago Qantas famously trialled the world’s first flight to produce no landfill waste. On the service from Sydney to Adelaide, customers found meal containers made out of biodegradable packaging made from sugar cane, cutlery made from crop starch and paper cups.

Air New Zealand has been looking at other ways to improve its eco credentials. It recently announced it was joining forces with Airbus to explore how zero-emission aircraft could be flown in New Zealand.

Under a memorandum of understanding with Airbus, Air New Zealand will analyse the impact hydrogen aircraft may have on its network, operations and infrastructure. Airbus will provide the airline with hydrogen aircraft performance requirements and ground operations to support the airline’s decarbonisation roadmap.

Air New Zealand has a goal of net zero emissions by 2050, while Airbus has ambitions to develop a zero-emission commercial aircraft by 2035.

Also taking up the eco challenge is Sounds Air. The Marlborough-based regional airline has outlined its plans to be operating at least three electric aircraft by 2026.