Etihad Airways eliminated around 195,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions last year through fuel-saving initiatives across its network.
The UAE carrier was able to reduce the amount of fuel used by its aircraft by more than 62,000 tonnes.
The result represents a 3.3% improvement from 2016 and is the equivalent of 850 flights between Abu Dhabi and London.
Flight plan adjustments across the airline’s network reduced approximately 900 hours of flying time, leading to a saving of 5,400 tonnes of fuel and eliminating approximately 17,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions.
Etihad Airways also retired several older aircraft in favour of fuel efficient Boeing 787 Dreamliners.
The carrier currently operates 19 Boeing 787s in its 115-strong fleet of passenger and cargo aircraft.
Etihad also strengthened its collaboration with air traffic control providers at many major airports including its Abu Dhabi hub to improve the efficiency of many aircraft descents and approaches.
The most fuel efficient descent manoeuvre is known as a ‘continuous descent approach’, whereby the aircraft reduces height gradually, rather than in a stepped manner. Thanks to an increase in the number of continuous decent approaches in 2017, a total of 980 tonnes of fuel was saved over the course of the year.
By combining key fuel saving projects with operational improvements, the efficiency per passenger kilometre improved by as much as 36% on some routes.
Chief operations officer Richard Hill said: “2017 was a particularly good year for fuel efficiency.
“The combination of retiring some of our older aircraft and increasing the proportion of Boeing 787 aircraft within our fleet, together with optimising our flight paths among a range of other initiatives has made a noticeable improvement to our fuel consumption and emissions profile.”