Across its six airlines, the group has reduced its relative carbon emissions by 9.3% in five years due to the development of more efficient aircraft and by encouraging customers to make sustainable travel decisions.

Average CO2 per revenue passenger kilometre now stands at 70.7g – an improvement of 3.2% since 2012, which, according to the company, makes it one of the most carbon efficient airlines in “Europe and beyond”.

Last year also saw the company’s UK and Ireland division generate savings of nearly €2m through a scheme that supports 40 of its hotels in their journey to become more efficient.

The scheme helped the group achieve reductions in energy and water usage, resulting in average cost savings of 6% for energy and 13% for water.

TUI Travel group director of sustainable development Jane Ashton said: ‘TUI Travel’s aim is to support sustainability change at scale, both across our own operations and the wider industry.

“We made a significant step towards this in 2013, when TUI Travel airlines’ carbon efficiency improvements exceeded our expectations, and we saw a major shift in the number of our hotel suppliers who have now achieved credible and independently-audited sustainability certification,” she added.

In August last year, TUI Travel announced that it had achieved its 2015 carbon reduction target, which at the time stood at 6%, helping save the company £16m in 2012. This prompted the company to increase its target to the recently achieved 9%.

The carbon reduction was due to operational efficiencies, fuel conservation activities, capacity amendments and airline enhancements.

In December, TUI Travel announced that it had entered into a partnership with aircraft manufacturer Boeing to accelerate the creation and production of sustainable aircraft technologies.

Leigh Stringer

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