Air New Zealand has released its latest sustainability report, which outlines the airline’s progress against its sustainability goals over the past year.

The report is focused on the most material sustainability opportunities and challenges the airline is tackling – supporting people and communities, tackling climate change, supporting New Zealand through sustainable tourism, working with its suppliers and reducing waste and plastic.

Air New Zealand’s chief executive officer Greg Foran said this year’s report reinforces the airline’s ongoing commitment to sustainability, despite the current challenging operating environment. “It has certainly been a very challenging year for the aviation sector and for Air New Zealand. We have worked hard to ensure the actions we have taken over past months will enable the airline to emerge competitively and sustainably from the Covid-19 crisis.”

“It has been particularly pleasing to see voluntary offsetting rates increase in the past year – through our voluntary carbon offsetting function FlyNeutral, together with our customers we have contributed towards permanent native forestry projects across New Zealand and achieved an average uptake rate across all retail storefronts of 7.1% which is fantastic when you take into account the drop off in passenger numbers this year. Thank you to all our customers who continue to choose to offset their emissions.”