Southwest’s Green Plane Saves Fuel and More

The Green Plane is Southwest’s newest initiative in a company-wide effort to save money and fuel.

OUr friend Johnny Jet flies about 150,000 miles a year and takes fastidious notes of every mile in the air. He recently wrote about Southwest Airlines media day where they unveiled a new plane that will clean up the way airlines do business.

From the nose to the tail, this 737, the airlines only model, will be much greener.It starts with the little things: they’ve replaced those awful styrofoam cups with eco-friendly paper ones with built-in sleeves to keep the cup from burning passenger’s hands..

The plane is equipped with NextGen satellite-based navigation, which means flying more direct routes and emitting less CO2.

The plane’s carpet is made of recycled materials, they have lighter fake-leather seats which save 2 pounds per seat.They even use smaller lifejackets to save weight.

They use Pratt and Whitney’s eco wash system which removes grime from the engines in an environmentally safe way that saves fuel and makes the engines last longer.

In other news, the conpany’s CEO told him flat-out that Southwest won’t be charging for bags this year, or even for a second bag. Let’s keep our fingers crossed on that.