Emirates Airlines has announced that its new dry wash cleaning program introduced in early 2016 is saving up to 11 million liters of water every year to clean its fleet of more than 260 aircraft. It said it uses “little to no water” as compared to conventional washing regimens that consume thousands of liters per wash.
Ahmad Safa, Emirates Senior Vice President — Engineering Support Services, told Gulf News that the airline is doing everything in its power to conserve water as a good sustainable environmental practice. He is quotes saying: “By implementing water-saving techniques we are building on our cumulative efforts across various business divisions to reduce our environmental footprint. “
Over the years, the industry standard to clean aircraft using pressurized water between four to five times every year uses on average more than 11,300 liters of water to clean one Airbus A380 aircraft and more than 9,500 liters of water to clean a Boeing 777 aircraft every time.
To forego the need to spray wash the large fuselages and wings of its aircraft, Emirates since early last year has introduced a liquid cleaner that it applies manually and then allows to dry.
Similar to a car wax, the dried film is then wiped off and polished by up to 15 staff over a 12-hour cleaning session for the A380 and nine hours for the smaller Boeing 777 body.
