Environmental impact of Aviation Today In this report, you are the CEO of a company of your choice within the parameters listed below. Your report needs to outline to your stakeholders and customers...

Running Head: Environmental Impact of Aviation Today
Environmental Impact of Aviation Today
Environmental Impact of Aviation Today
Company: Qantas Airlines
Executive Summary
The Aircraft while flying emit hazardous greenhouse gaseous emissions which cause adverse impact over the atmosphere. Qantas Airlines has been highly aggressive in adopting sustainability measures to improve the efficiency of its flights and reduce the carbon emissions. The study recognizes the main initiatives being done by the Qantas Airlines like enhancing the fuel efficiency, utilizing the aviation biofuel, carbon offsetting, protecting against the pollution, minimizing the waste production, and reducing the consumption of energy and water. The study provides the overview of the background of the Company, introduces the Company ad illustrates various initiatives being practiced by the company to improve sustainability. The study illustrates the dual-brand strategy and elaborates the financial performance of the company. Finally provides the recommendations to make the company more sustainable.
Keywords: Sustainable; Qantas; Biofuel, Pollution; Aviation.
Introduction
Flying is known to have a devastating impact on the environment. The Aviation Industry is known to burn more than 5 million barrels of fossil fuel every day which contributes to more than 2.5% of overall carbon emissions (Tyers,2017). The increasing demand for airlines travelers is going to increase the number of aircraft in the sky. Moreover, unlike other sectors, there is no greener alternative to aircraft flights. Though the airlines are getting more fuel efficient now, the change cannot be brought immediately to counterbalance the increasing demand for growth. The electric planes having batteries do not seem to fulfill the need for power as the jet fuels.
The report analyzes the environmental impact of Aviation in the current scenario, focusing on the essential characteristics of Qantas Airlines. The report seeks to outline the stakeholders and the customers on how we can turn the Qantas airlines to be more sustainable while being more economically efficient. The report investigates the current expenses of the Company by comparing the investments with the opportunity.
Statement of the Problem
“How can the Qantas Airlines become more sustainable while being economically efficient?”
Background
Qantas is a largest domestic and international airlines company of Australia (Qantas, 2018). The company was founded in the Queensland in 1920 and was originally registered as Queensland and Northern Territory Aerial Services Limited (QANTAS). Nowadays the company is widely regarded as leading long distance airline globally and one of the strongest brands in Australia. The company has earned the reputation for excellent services in safety, reliability, engineering, maintenance and customer services. Two complementary airlines brands are used for transportation of customers, as the main business of Qantas group and these are Qantas and Jetstar. The subsidiary business of this group is to provide services of Q Catering in other airlines. Approx 31,000 people are provided with employment in the company and among them 1% of employees (approx 317) are from Australian Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Community.
Through flying art series the company introduced various types of designs on the aircrafts which reflects the indigenous culture of Australia. The Company launched its Reconciliation Action Plan (RAP) in 2007 with a vision to outline the support for business strategy through innovative commitments for developing a positive attitude toward cultural difference, education and employment opportunities, engagement of employees and building the skills of Indigenous Communities. Ten years earlier Qantas launched its Carbon Offset Program which has now become the largest Airline offset Initiative in the world. The offsets fund large projects and the people to help protect the environment. For example, an initiative backs the farmers to conserve the ancient forest in Bothwell, Tasmania; empowering the communities to stop the deforestation; supporting the development of solar energy in New South Wales, all the efforts being done to build a sustainable future.
In this regard Qantas has certain predefined targets in the air and on the ground. They have proper strategies to deliver. The Company is playing an active role in meeting these targets on the basis of a simple guideline of measure, reduce, offset and influence. For example the Company as a target of achieving 1.5% annual improvements in fuel efficiency by the year 2020. The Company has a strategy to deliver it through operational improvements and fleet modernization. The implementation of the strategy has shown an improvement of 7.5% against the baseline 2009.
INITIATIVES
Fuel Efficiency: There are over 300 aircraft, and around 1500 flights operated in Qantas group of Australia with an average consumption of 14 billion liters of fuel in a day. Thus as a consequence, there is over 95% of overall emissions of gas, heat, and light directly from jet fuel in the environment of Australia. As per the analysis of the International Council of Clean Transportation (ICCT) in 2016, Qantas has been ranked as the worst in twenty major Airlines of the world conducting trans-Pacific flights. The table mentioned blow is indicating the fuel efficiency of Qantas Airlines:-
     Fuel efficiency of 20 Airlines on trans-Pacific Passenger routes 2016
    
    Average Fuel Effiency
Per Passenger KM
    Excess Fuel Used Per
Passenger KM
    Hainan ANA
    30
    0
    Air New Zealand
    35
    +3%
    EVA Air, China Airlines
    34
    +6%
    Air China, Virgin Australia; Fiji; American
    33
    +9%
    JAL; Delta; United
    32
    +13%
    China; Southern; Cathay Pacific; China
Eastern; Philippines; Singapore
    30
    +20%
    Asian
    28
    +29%
    Korean Air
    26
    +38%
    Qantas
    22
    +64%
Source: Qantas (2018)
The table clearly shows that Qantas Airlines of Australia burns 64 % more fuel per passenger – Kilometer than the top-ranked airlines in the world (China-based Hainan ANA). The description of a passenger-kilometer is made as how many people travel 1 km on one liter of fuel.
The poor performance of Qantas reflects due to the use of Airbus A380 and Boeing 747-400 ER, the most fuel inefficient aircraft for carrying fewer passengers than the other airlines. The Qantas agreed to the reports of ICCT because they are using larger aircraft which have more premium cabins than the competitors of Qantas which lead to fewer passengers on board. The company is committed to meet the IATA industry target by improving the fuel efficiency of 1.5% from 2009 to 2020. The improvement will be made on the retirement of B747s till the 2021 and new fuel-efficient aircraft, B787-9 and A320- NEO will be introduced in the company as these aircraft are around 20% more fuel efficient than B747s. Thus there will be a key component of ongoing cost-cutting initiatives of Qantas.
Aviation Bio-fuel: As Qantas Airlines is a user of fuel and always tries to use better fuel for a safer environment. In collaboration with other airlines, scientific agencies, and environmental NGOs, the company is trying to accelerate the development of Aviation bio-fuels. Qantas Airlines is a signatory member of the Sustainable Aviation Fuel User Group (SAFUG). As per the recommendations of SAFUG members, the performance of bio-fuel will be identified with characteristics such as Better performance than fossil fuel jet kerosene with smaller carbon life cycle, minimum bio-diversity impact, minimal land, water and energy to produce, food security is not compromised, not dangerous for drinking water supply and gives socioeconomic value to local communities at the place of biomass.
The Company also has established landmark with the United States based bio-energy company (SG Preston) and Canadian agricultural-technology company (Agrisoma Biosciences), for developing a program to work with farmers of Australia for production of bio-fuel from mustard seeds. A hard work has been done by Qantas to improve the efficiency of fuel and make a sustainable future of aviation with bio-fuel different from fossil fuel. The first commercial biofuel flight of Australia was made by the Qantas in 2012, that was a historical event and first biofuel flight of World was operated between Los Angeles (US) to Melbourne (Australia) in January 2018. This historic trans-Pacific flight was of 15 hours operated approx 2000 Kg of blended bio-fuel and saved 18000 Kg in carbon emissions (Qantas,2018).
A special type of mustard named as Brassica Carinata, which is a source of high-quality oil for bio-fuel and bio-diesel is used for aviation. It is cultivated and sown in fall areas, where food crops do not grow. It is also planted to manage soil erosion, soil fertility, improve soil quality, water and weeds etc, and provide additional income to the farmers. Carinata seeds have fuel as per the mustard seeds. Fuel based on Carinata provides 80% less in carbon emission in comparison to natural petroleum-based fuel which is used today in USA, South America, and Europe. When Carinata seeds are pressed or squeezed with a force to deform, these produce a...