Monarch to launch full onboard recycling

Award winning airline Monarch is the first UK airline to roll out a full recycling programme onboard its flights, meaning that all aluminium, plastic, glass and paper used during a flight will now be recycled on landing after only 16% of its passengers surveyed in a recent poll said they believed that airlines are doing enough to recycle onboard waste*.

Monarch is pioneering the scheme ahead of other UK carriers as part of its MAP initiative (Monarch and the Planet), through which all aspects of the airline’s business are being evaluated as it strives to improve its environmental footprint. The launch of the onboard recycling scheme, which has been introduced on all flights operating into London Gatwick, follows an initial trial which was successfully received by both customers and cabin crew on a selection of flights over the summer.

The scheme will see all recyclable items, such as aluminium drinks cans, plastic wine and water bottles, glass wine and champagne bottles plus newspapers/magazines placed into a separate recycling bag by cabin crew during the flight. This will subsequently be passed over to cleaning staff at Gatwick Airport on the flight’s arrival for recycling.

Commenting on the launch of the scheme, managing director of Monarch Airlines, Tim Jeans said, “Monarch has been operating a paper collection scheme onboard its flights for a number of years now but feedback from passengers and crew highlighted the fact that the recycling of other items, such as plastics and cans, is a part of everyday life now which people wished to continue – if they were at home they’d be recycling the items, so why should they not do so on flights?

“With 70% of the waste generated in the cabin being potentially recyclable, Monarch has been working with Gatwick Airport on the initiative to ensure that the recyclable waste is removed from the aircraft on arrival and recycled appropriately. We are looking to extend the scheme to include all Monarch’s flights over the coming months and we urge our other UK and European airports to introduce the necessary recycling infrastructure to allow us to do so”.

Commenting on the initiative, David Stretch, Customer Service Director, BAA Gatwick said: “We are continually looking at ways to increase recycling at the airport and I'm delighted that Monarch has led the way in introducing a service which results in all recyclable onboard items now being recycled. I'm also particularly delighted that Monarch has chosen Gatwick as its first airport location to introduce this scheme, which brings benefits for everyone."

Onboard recycling is just one of a number of environmental initiatives that Monarch will be implementing onboard its flights over the coming months. Others include the introduction of biodegradable alternatives to replace those items that cannot be recycled due to food contamination, carrier bags used for the duty free service being replaced by biodegradable bags, plus the printing of the inflight magazine on paper that comes from trees grown in sustainable forests.

Monarch is one of the UK’s largest leisure airlines, operating both charter and scheduled flights and was recently voted as Leisure Airline of the Year for the second consecutive year in the TTG prestigious travel industry awards. The airline is the principal independent supplier of charter seats to tour operators large and small, flying to around 100 destinations across Europe, America, Africa and Asia from the UK’s principal and regional airports.

The scheduled service division of Monarch Airlines offers low cost services from Birmingham, London Luton, London Gatwick and Manchester Airports to destinations in Spain, Portugal, Gibraltar and Cyprus.

The airline, based at Luton, operates one of the most well-equipped fleets in the skies today comprising 23 Airbus and eight Boeing aircraft. The airline will also be one of the first UK carriers to take delivery of the Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner aircraft with six due for delivery between 2010 and 2013.

For more information or to book, visit flymonarch.com.

* Online poll carried out on flyMonarch.com between 04 and 14 October 2007. 1,138 people responded to the survey.