Air New Zealand

[Anna Barrett]

When I travel by plane just between Hamilton and Wellington, every time I seem to be put in the seats at the back of the plane. When they collect the rubbish during the flight from the water and cups of tea/coffee, pretty much a whole bag is chocka. One day I got the courage to ask the flight attendant if they recycled, she said she didn't know. The amount of waste they create on these short flights is so unnecessary. What if people want a coffee but not the sugar, milk or stirring spoon? what if the only want the biscuit? It really is driving me wild because it would be such a simple design change.

[Stephanie Fill]

You could email the head of the Green Team at Air NZ - [e-mail]

[Anna Barrett]

ok sweet thank you!

[Vineet Rajasekhar]

That's right, everytime I hop from Dunedin to Christchurch (55min flight) They hand out cookies (plastic wrapped) tin-foil-styrofoam water cups, paper cups of coffee etc. You have to wonder why they need all that, when low budget airlines ply a perfectly good trade by turning the total absence of amenities into a glowing attraction. Maybe instead of seeking an engineering solution to waste management, if Air New Zealand just did some polling to discover whether all the coffee and cookies made any difference to passengers on the short hops, they might find that getting rid of them, or making them optional might be the way to go.

If flights with less than 90 people that last less than an hour don't need to be extensively security checked, do they need to be pumped full of plastic wrapped coffee and cookies?

[Anna Barrett]

Alrighty I have emailed miss Dianne haha arh scary scary i have never done nething like this b4!

[Bruce]

Dont be scared Anna - the way we have made most of the changes at Air New Zealand is from people like you sending in ideas - blog sites, customer feedback etc is the way we assess how to improve these days
Consultants dont exist at Air New Zealand any more - customer feedback is much more accuarte and faster
The changes to domestic check in to eliminate queues that was launched last year was from customers telling us what they wanted
Who knows you may invent the next big thing in air travel
Rgds - Bruce Parton GGM Shorthaul Airlines - Air New Zealand

[Amanda Judd]

Yea I only recently discovered how rediculous it is too! I recently took a flight from ChCh to Akl, and didn't want a drink, so they asked if I wanted a cookie, and when I said yes they gave me the entire cup, spoon, cookie, everything.

However, I did also go on an international flight recently, where over the loud speaker the crew asked all passengers to please keep their plastic cups and re-use them for all drinks. They also asked passengers with drink bottles to use them for water instead of wasting cups (and they would fill them up for us when we liked - it was excellent service and crew that were super happy and more than willing to help), it was quite a suprise! Would be great if every flight asked the same.

[Anna Barrett]

oh really thats fantastic! was that also Air New Zealand?

[Simon C McManus]

Airlines are a great place to sit and criticise aren't they :)

Budget airlines often do offer optional snacks for sale, with all the nasty generic packaging that comes with that too. But Air New Zealand commissions their own branded packaging, so it will be interesting to hear the response.

One point in Air New Zealand's favour, they are involved in some world-leading bio-fuel innovations

[Bruce]

Norm Thompson the deputy CEO of Air New Zealand is the key person leading the team for the environment including developments on Biofuels
Air New Zealand recently did the first test flight on stage two biofuel (Jatropha) which is a sustainable product that doesnt take farm land nor use more energy than it saves (Palm oil)
Norms e-mail address is [e-mail]
Rgds
Bruce Parton - Group General Manager - Shorthaul Airlines

[Nick Potter]

Tying two conversations together... my sister told me that Air NZ are serving chocolate chip cookies which contain both beef oil and palm oil. You might want to check out this conversation on Palm Oil.

I'm assuming Air NZ is completely unaware of this - but it could be worthwhile drawing it to their attention, seeing as they have made a big deal about sourcing biofuel from sustainable sources. And check out this video on Dove soap. As a result of this - with pressure from consumers - Unilever declared a moratorium on non-sustainable sources of Palm Oil in their products. They're also pressuring other companies to do the same. A great intersection of public awareness raising, viral videos, pressure from consumers, and a company trying to be responsible!

[Nick Potter]

So it turns out Air NZ is aware of this issue! My good old sister asked Air NZ about their cookies. Here's Air NZ's response... it's great to see Air NZ actually engaging so thoroughly and quickly with a concern raised by one of their customers...

From: Hart, Sue (Product Manager)
Date: 2009/6/17
Subject: Air New Zealand Biscuit

Hi Kate

Following Claries email, I just wanted to comment on a few developments around our cookie.

Both of these have been looked at in the last few months for the very reasons that you point out. I’m pleased to advise that the new biscuit flavours that we’ll be moving to in a few months (Hokey Pokey and Grandmas Oat) will be using vegetable fat in the margarine, rather than animal fat. So that will hopefully please vegetarians wanting to choose this option.

The palm oil however is slightly more challenging for us – and probably many organisations, although I’m not saying it is an excuse. We have looked into using another product in place of palm oil, but face the following challenges;

* As you’re probably aware, palm oil is used in many everyday products – both consumed (biscuits, noodles, yogurt, cake, chocolates, cereals) and as cleaning agents (soap, cosmetics dishwashing liquid). We have worked with our supplier to ensure that the palm oil we use in our biscuits is sourced from approved sustainable planting in Malaysia. I understand from our supplier that this is what many environmental groups are now advocating as the best means of palm oil use as opposed to a blanket ban which is almost impossible.

* A lot of ingredients sourced for products – consumed or otherwise, are probably doing damage to the environment in one way or another – from the environmental damaged caused by cows in New Zealand that help supply us with butter used in biscuit through to coconut oil (also used in the biscuit) which I understand can be acquired from crops that could otherwise be used to grow produce to better supply food for countries in need. Actually, by moving to a vegetable fat rather than animal fat as mentioned above because of vegetarian feedback – we’ll actually be using more palm oil. Reason I raise this is we are mindful that we don’t want to move from one product for ethnic or environmental reasons, only to move to another which is just as damaging. We need to also factor in cost constraints as well as shelf life and taste qualities that different ingredients impact on the final product.

I did check out the Dove commercial and I think it’s great that they’re taking palm oil out of their product and I understand Unilever, their parent company, are committed to ensuring that use of palm oil is done in a sustainable way. Please be assured that we try to ensure our products are environmentally sustainable and ethically sound as possible – there are several significant projects going on in the company as we speak to ensure we’re doing as much as we can both inflight and on the ground.

Kind regards
Sue Hart

Product Manager

[Julia Capon]

Hi Anna,

Great post! I too feel the same about this - and it is not just Air NZ - it is every airline! I have flown Qantas recently on an overseas trip - it was hard enough on my footprint as it was (eek!) - but was shocked by the amount of waste created on a flight - from multiple cups used thorough out the flights, small pottles of water, unused salt, peppers, sugar, plastic cutlery, butters, dressings etc..would love to know some stats on waste - does anyone have any idea? Or research into what is "recycled" and not from the food on an airline? can any do an expose on it?

I would love to see some action taken to canvas airlines to do their bit for the environment.

I have recently emailed Air NZ about having fair trade coffee on their flights (majority of which in NZ is imported by Trade Aid and is organic. The price paid to farmers also takes into account the environment and allows them to develop projects to protect the environment, themselves and the consumer). Convincing them of this was battle enough.. but they did stock it during Fair Trade Fortnight (2 -17 May).

I have been looking for biodegradable cups for my own work, and I know that there are alternatives in NZ. The BioWare range has been developed by Huhtamaki, a global packaging leader. It isn't perfect but it's better. This cup is biodegradable, compostable and made from renewable resources. And there would be lots of great options for biodegradable plates, cutlery etc.

As an alternative, and perhaps a little harder on longer flights - say no to the food. I have had some friends who when they fly make all their food and take it with them.. one alternative. This was quite eye opening for the rest of the flight when they travlled in a group of 15 and pulled out their dinner, when they wanted to eat it, let some enticing smells waft through the plain, and loudly said no to packaged food - and of course it was probably far superior to regular plane food.

I have received some surveys before on Air NZ flights and each time I make sure to mention the wasteful practices.. hopefully others can too!

Can anyone else think of anything to do other than mass emailing to Air NZ to change their practices? Love the idea of the design competition too...

Julia