Southwest Airlines is testing an eco-friendly interior for its planes with the unveiling of a Green Plane - a Boeing 737-700, will serve as a test environment for using eco-friendly material and products, and reducing waste and weight.

Southwest is aiming for a weight savings of nearly five pounds per seat, along with  recyclable elements to the cabin interior and waste reduction.

The changes being tried out include an InterfaceFLOR Carpet, e-Leather and IZIT Leather seats, and environmentally friendly life vest pouches and seat rub strips.

In addition to the green plane, Southwest also announced the Nov. 1 kickoff of its more robust onboard recycling program, which is a co-mingled system that will allow the airline to capture more recyclable material and divert it from the waste stream.

For more information on how Southwest Airlines cares for the environment, visit www.southwest.com/cares.

Ok, so that was the official version from Southwest. The thing is, these changes are minor compared to what actually needs to be done to make a plane eco-friendly.

The fact is - whenever you board a plane for your nice family vacations or fishing trips or whatever, you’re hurting the environment, and the only two solutions are to either not fly, or fly on a plane which use an alternative fuel.

If Southwest really cared, they would admit it, and work towards a way of switching to alternative fuels.

To be fair to Southwest, there is no airline as yet which offers commercial flights on planes using biodeisel or natural gas. There have been tests - by Qatar Air, Virgin Atlantic and Air New Zealand.

But as of now, an eco-friendly plane still remains an oxymoron. And Southwest would do well to not call their fuel-guzzler a green plane. At least not with a straight face.

Photo courtesy & credit - Southwest Airlines

Posted on October 22nd, 2009 by PLing
Filed under: Airlines, Sustainable Travel