E
Sustainable Environment
S
Inclusive Society
G
Corporate Governance

ECO

We implement ECO services with core values of creativity, technology, environmental protection, inspiration, and trust. We invite customers to join us in protecting Mother Earth.

Energy-efficient Aircraft Strict Controls over Water Quality on Aircraft Onboard Service Green Freight Implement Conservation Policies

ECO Services

From the very start of the journey, we integrate environmental sustainability by designing, planning, and implementing various ECO services. We hope passengers will join us, step by step, toward a future with greater ecological benefits.

Ground Operations Participate in the voluntary carbon offset program, “ECO Travel Carbon Offset.” Not to illegally transport endangered species of plants and animals. Use “Eco Points (Green Points)” to offset the fare of the Mandarin Airlines Taipei-Kinmen flight. Utilize the e-menu service available in the VIP lounge at Taoyuan Airport. Use the China Airlines app for online check-in (if a paper boarding pass is still needed, paper boarding passes will be printed on FSC-certified paper), pre-select meals. Takeoff/Landing Process Experience fuel-efficient flight operations, such as executing continuous descents to achieve fuel savings. (In summer) Close the sun-facing window shades to help conserve energy. During Flights Enjoy and support eco-friendly in-flight service items, use your own headphones to listen to music. Support recycling operations on twin-aisle aircraft. Browse a variety of publications in the cloud bookstore to support weight reduction and fuel savings in the cabin. (Business class passengers) Place the order using the electronic menu. Enjoy in-flight meals made with locally sourced or seasonal ingredients. Preparing for the Next Journey Support and follow China Airlines’ participation in the “Pacific Greenhouse Gases Measurement (PGGM)” initiative and the SkyTeam The Aviation Challenge Campaign (Note2). Apply the eMALL e-commerce platform to support sustainable procurement. Ground Operations Step 1 Step 2 Takeoff/Landing Process Step 3 During Flights Step 4 Preparing for the Next Journey Green Services

Energy-efficient Aircraft

China Airlines continues to advance its fleet renewal program with a solid strategy to strengthen its global passenger and cargo market presence. In 2024, the airline introduced one leased A350-900, four A321neo passenger aircraft, and two 777F freighters. In 2025, in addition to further A321neo deliveries, China Airlines will welcome a new Boeing 787 fleet, offering enhanced passenger and cargo services with a modernized and younger fleet. Currently, the airline operates 10 Boeing 737-800 passenger planes with an average age of 9.5 years, which are planned to be gradually retired by 2028 in line with the A321neo introduction.

Regarding cabin amenities, China Airlines embraces innovation to resonate with younger generations by upgrading digital experiences while ensuring comfort and environmental friendliness:

  • The in-flight entertainment system now offers premium podcast services, enhanced movie quality, and unlimited downloads of hundreds of publications through the digital magazine "Dynasty Sky Reading."
  • On A321neo and 737-800 aircraft, passengers can connect personal electronic devices to the in-flight entertainment system for seamless multimedia streaming at altitude.
  • To improve product consistency across fleets and cabin competitiveness, China Airlines is upgrading the A350-900 cabins with the latest seating and next-generation high-definition personal entertainment systems, featuring high-spec, customized cabin equipment aligned with industry trends.

Ticket Service

China Airlines continuously enhances the smoothness of booking and ticketing on its website and app, while strengthening online itinerary management services. The website’s information presentation is streamlined and page design optimized for intuitive browsing and easy access to travel details such as baggage policies, fare products, special requests, and flight status. Passengers can also complete booking, check-in, seat and meal selection, chatbot service, and access 14 comprehensive services including Dynasty Sky Reading online. Electronic boarding passes are adopted to reduce paper use, and all printed boarding passes are produced on FSC-certified paper.

Airport Services

Through procuring large-sized bottled beverages, local food ingredients, implementing waste classification and recycling, and strengthening the improvement of energy-saving lighting and energy management, CAL oversees VIP service quality and environmental loads.

To provide passengers with a fresh experience when checking in via the China Airlines app, the electronic boarding pass screen features exclusive designs for different festivals. Whether it’s the joyful Lunar New Year, the culturally rich Dragon Boat and Mid-Autumn Festivals, or the warm and heartfelt Christmas, each e-boarding pass incorporates carefully crafted festive illustrations. This adds a celebratory atmosphere to the journey, allowing passengers to feel the holiday spirit and China Airlines’ thoughtful care from the moment they begin their trip.

Strict Controls over Water Quality on Aircraft

CAL has laid out drinking water treatment processes, adopted controls for pre- and post-flight water refill and disinfection processes to protect the quality of drinking water and prevent resource wastage.

Before water refilling:
  • Strictly select qualified ground handling agents to perform aircraft water filling operations. The water samples shall be sent to go through multiple filtration equipment and chlorination to guarantee good quality.
  • Water samples shall be sent regularly to qualified laboratory for inspection to ensure compliance with national drinking water standards.
  • For stations with high risk of water supply, the aircraft refilling will be conducted in previous station with qualified water standard, or mineral bottled water will be used.

Water supply procedure
  • In a period of refilling, added extra cartridge depending on the operational risks; Activated Carbon Filters were added in the outlet of potable water equipment in the aircraft.
  • Supervise the quality of water supply service strictly to ensure the water supply source meets the standards.
  • Analyze and manage the water consumption of outstations, and reduce unnecessary waste of water resources by appropriately controlling the water supply , thus reducing water consumption, fuel consumption and carbon emissions.

Potable water self-testing and disinfecting of aircraft potable water system:

  • Ahead of other Taiwan’s airlines incorporate environmental management system to water management and audit plan; Regular and random water quality monitoring, water inspection shall be carried out by qualified laboratory.
  • Inspection frequency for disinfect tank and replace filter which are stricter than the manufacturer manual.
  • If the aircraft has on overnight stop in outstations, the aircraft water tank and the remaining water in the pipeline will be drained to avoid bacteria breeding.
  • Perform regular and random water quality monitoring and inspecting every year. If abnormal conditions happened (e.g. water with impurity, polluted water), on-board water supply will be stopped immediately, disinfection operations will be conducted and water samples will be sent for analysis and inspection to ensure the water quality meets national standards.

Waste Management for Passenger and Cargo Services

  • China Airlines has implemented several sustainability initiatives in response to international concerns about reducing cabin waste. On twin-aisle aircraft, they have promoted onboard waste sorting and recycling, and in 2024, they restarted waste weighing and surveys following IATA and ASF methodologies to optimize meal and supplies planning. They also conduct educational training to ensure quality execution and effective results.
  • In partnership with China Pacific Catering Services (CPCS), they promote green transformation and food waste reduction by practicing energy saving, carbon reduction, and waste reduction from procurement, production to distribution. CPCS ensures food safety and quality through ISO and HACCP certifications and has expanded into ready-to-eat foods and corporate catering to extend sustainability concepts into daily life.
  • Responding to the trend of plastic reduction, from November 2024, China Airlines switched to stainless steel cutlery and increased the use of sustainably certified paper and wood packaging materials. They introduced multiple recycled and renewable material products to reduce resource consumption and biodiversity impact.
  • In cargo operations, recycled tarpaulins and packaging materials have been introduced to implement recycling and reuse mechanisms, realizing comprehensive environmental protection actions.
〈 The Aviation Challenge, TAC 〉Video
Principle Waste Management Food loss and Waste Management Reduce Single-use Plastics / Packaging
Prevent
  • Optimize operational systems to promote digitalization and paperless processes in flight operations, passenger/cargo services, and office activities.
  • Reinstate the use of reusable meal boxes and utensils in employee cafeterias.
  • Monitor the quantity of onboard meals at global flight points through a precise meal loading system, closely coordinating meal verification with catering kitchens to accurately control meal orders.
  • Expand the promotion of onboard pre-selected meal services (e.g., exclusive refined low-carbon/vegetarian meal options).
  • Precisely design meal portions to reduce leftover food.
  • Starting from November 2024, gradually phase out plastic cutlery sets in economy meals and replace them with environmentally friendly, recyclable stainless steel utensils, integrating multifunctional fork-spoon combinations with knives to reduce the quantity of onboard utensils.
  • Purchase non-single-use plastic and eco-friendly recyclable products (e.g., eco-friendly dental floss sticks for business class, eco-friendly toothbrushes for economy class), provide eco-friendly paper meal boxes and utensil sets for ultra-short-haul flights, with meal boxes using plastic-free coatings, wooden spoons and paper packaging for utensils, and collaborate with suppliers to develop eco-friendly paper cups to reduce environmental impact during waste disposal.
  • Do not provide disposable paper cups at meetings, encourage the use of electronic check-in systems, and pilot the use of reusable meal boxes to reduce the use of single-use meal containers.
Reduce
  • Adopt a leasing model for photocopiers with built-in paper usage monitoring systems to track consumption monthly.
  • Optimize maintenance processes to reduce the generation of end-stage waste.
  • Strictly control the procurement, receiving, cold storage, and loading processes of food ingredients to minimize food loss.
  • Integrate passenger preferences across regions to design highly interoperable menus, enhancing passenger satisfaction and meal completion rates.
  • Regularly review the per capita leftover food generation performance in VIP lounges, and set leftover food management targets and improvement measures.
  • Precisely plan business and cabin supplies and negotiate with catering suppliers to reduce packaging use and waste, for example, replacing plastic ice cream containers with ice pop sticks or paper packaging.
  • Encourage passengers to bring personal items such as headphones, reusable cups, and utensils.
Reuse
  • Increase the reuse rate of industrial waste through matchmaking (e.g., waste plastic barrels, waste lubricating oil).
  • Repair and reuse passenger and cargo transport equipment (e.g., straps).
  • Actively seek detoxification methods for hazardous waste to enhance the feasibility of reuse and recycling.
  • Innovatively develop new dishes to improve the utilization of ingredients.
  • Diversify the use of food scraps to achieve zero food waste.
  • Develop and encourage passengers to use reusable products to replace single-use items and packaging (e.g., silicone foldable travel cups, eco-friendly business class chopsticks/slippers, duty-free shopping bags).
  • Provide passenger catering services with recyclable plastic trays and utensils, which are strictly disinfected and reused in cycles.
Recycle
  • Review and improve waste classification and resource recycling processes to increase recycling rates.
  • Continuously seek opportunities for waste resource recovery and reuse, actively match with recycling vendors, and establish recycling and reuse procedures to ensure that packaging and other waste generated by the group’s operations are properly recycled and reused:
    1. Confidential waste paper is shredded and pulped to be remanufactured into paper pulp.
    2. Waste paper food containers are washed and then remanufactured into paper pulp.
    3. Recycle waste tarpaulins and plastic films generated from TPE station cargo services and provide them to vendors for reuse.
    4. Waste aviation fuel generated from maintenance operations is collected, refined, and reused in a circular manner.
  • Practice responsible procurement:
    1. For office supplies procurement, encourage the selection of environmentally certified products, such as those with eco-friendly, energy-saving, water-saving, or forest certification labels.
    2. For paper/wood-based ground service supplies, choose products with sustainability certification or recycled paper, such as onboard hand towels and boarding passes.
  • Kitchen waste generated during meal preparation is properly collected and provided to pig farms as feed to realize resource reuse. At the same time, actively explore other environmentally friendly recycling methods, such as composting or bioenergy conversion, to reduce the environmental impact of waste and promote sustainable development.
  • Waste cooking oil from meal preparation is 100% collected and processed by oil manufacturers and converted into products such as biofuels.
  • The employee cafeteria at the China Airlines campus is equipped with a food waste processor; the processed materials are reused for plant maintenance within the campus, achieving zero food waste in the cafeteria.
  • Collaborate with suppliers to develop regenerated material service items:
    1. Eco-friendly remanufactured stainless steel cutlery sets
    2. Economy class eco-friendly toothbrush sets
    3. Business class eco-friendly dental floss picks
    4. Recycled plastic (RPET) headrest papers and pillowcases
    5. Onboard garbage bags made of 100% recycled plastic
    6. Recycled plastic (RPET) cups and salad bowl lids
  • Use sustainably certified raw materials for paper/wood products:
    1. Disposable eco-friendly tableware sets
    2. Facial tissues/hand towels/napkins
    3. Eco-friendly paper cups
    4. Playing cards
  • Cargo services select mixed-material tarpaulins made from 40% to 60% recycled materials to cover and protect goods.
  • Select appropriate onboard supplies/replace items to enhance value and provide sales services, such as repurposing retired onboard meal carts, aluminum meal boxes, and retired life jackets into eco-friendly bags.
  • Cooperate with e-commerce platform vendors to use boxes made from recycled paper pulp for packaging, and set packaging reduction targets and promotion strategies.
  • Collaborate with ground handling agents and catering suppliers to adjust cabin crew and cabin cleaning procedures, promoting resource recycling of cabin waste on twin-aisle aircraft.
Recovery
  • Kitchen waste incinerated according to quarantine regulations and most general household waste that employees cannot recycle are all used for power generation through the cogeneration equipment of incineration plants (Waste To Energy, WTE); based on the Ministry of Environment’s 2024 estimate of Taiwan’s incineration plant power generation efficiency, this can supply approximately 704 MWh of electricity to the national power grid.
  • Continuously monitor the progress of the expansion and renovation project of the Taoyuan Airport incineration plant, striving to install additional heat recovery equipment.

Cabin Waste Weighing Project

To identify opportunities for cabin waste reduction, China Airlines collaborated with its ground handling agent in December 2019 to collect, inventory, and analyze waste generated on selected short- and long-haul flights. Building on this, CAL optimized the waste weighing procedures and task allocation in August 2024. The project also referenced the operational practices from the Aviation Sustainability Forum (ASF) to enhance the collection of pre-flight information, post-flight data analysis, and strategic feedback.

Results from the 2024 Cabin Waste Weighing Project showed per-passenger waste of 0.5 kg on short-haul and 0.81 kg on long-haul flights—both lower than 2019 figures and ASF benchmarks. The composition review highlighted future focus areas such as flight duration, passenger schedules, and packaging design to balance passenger experience with waste reduction.

2024 Cabin Waste Weighing Project: Figure A - Weighing of Cabin Cleaning Waste; Figure B - Weighing of Cabin Catering Waste.

Wide-Body Passenger Aircraft Waste Recycling

In alignment with China Airlines' Environmental and Energy Policy, and to provide opportunities for the development of a circular economy, recycling operations for twin-aisle aircraft were implemented in phases on transoceanic and regional routes in 2023 and 2024, using dedicated recycling carts “ECO CART”.


Workflow

Phase Operation Details
Flight Preparation
  • Confirm that the flight is loaded with ECO CART for recycling. The designated kitchen crew member shall verify that there is no waste inside the ECO CART.
  • Confirm that the recycling bags (green eco-friendly vest bags) are loaded into the trolley, and that the quantity is correct and sufficient.
During Flights
  • Crew members are required to execute the classification and recycling process as specified, using eco-friendly vest bags or transparent plastic bags to load and categorize recyclable items. The bags are securely tied and placed into the ECO CART.
  • Priority order for recyclable items (excluding VIE station): PET bottles > metal and aluminum cans > paper (e.g., empty oolong tea boxes, empty cartons for milk balls, empty juice boxes) > clear glass bottles.
  • Glass bottles should be placed at the bottom of the ECO CART to prevent breakage and avoid affecting other recyclable items.
After Landing
  • If the cleaning staff does not proactively clean the cart during the kitchen cleaning operation, the crew members are required to remind them to unload the recyclable items from the ECO CART.

Eco-Friendly and Stylish In-Flight Amenity Kit

In line with China Airlines' commitment to environmental sustainability, in 2024, the Premium Business Class amenity kit collaborated with the trendy luxury brand MOSCHINO, while the Premium Economy Class kit collaborated with Canadian outdoor lifestyle brand Roots, offering a compact and convenient travel pouch. The contents are provided in collaboration with the highly acclaimed brand Moroccanoil, featuring a selection of practical skincare products. Furthermore, every element—from the pouch and contents to the packaging materials—is designed with environmental sustainability in mind. Recycled plastic is used in the production of the pouch, skincare bottles, eye mask, comb, and luggage tag. The toothbrush is made from wheat-based materials, while the outer bags for skincare products are composed of PLA material, and the outer bags for travel pouches utilize CPE biodegradable plastic. Additionally, the paper belly bands, wax paper for the dental kits, kraft paper box for earplugs, and informational cards are all made from FSC-certified materials sourced from legally and responsibly managed forests, reducing the environmental impact of both the products and their packaging.

A newly designed, eco-friendly in-flight amenity kit for Premium Business Class

A newly designed, eco-friendly in-flight amenity kit for Premium Economy Class

Onboard Service

  • Reduce Fuel Consumption and Carbon Emission

    CAL is committed to promoting mobile and electronic service processes, reducing paper and aircraft load, and providing lightweight and environmentally friendly services on board, such as portable headsets, environmental friendly head cushions and pillow case to reduce fuel consumption and carbon emissions.

  • Reduce Carbon Footprint

    CAL prioritizes the use of local ingredients, supporting Taiwan and local agriculture while reducing the distance and carbon footprint of food transportation. Embracing the spirit of "sustainability, environmental protection, and locality," CAL leads the global aviation industry in low-carbon and vegetarian trends. It actively promotes a low-carbon dining culture on board, aiming for zero food waste. CAL's services feature high-quality and safe Taiwanese products, including vegetables, fruits, pork, seafood, and poultry, ensuring that passengers enjoy premium meals.

  • Promote the Awareness of Environmental Protection

    Through promoting diverse actions such as providing onboard environmental video broadcast options, environmental slogan printed packaging, eco shopping and invitation for shutting window blinds during the summer season, CAL actively facilitates and promotes green consumption and environmental awareness among the passengers. CAL also communicates the corporate concept and performance of environmental protection with stakeholders through official website and social media in hopes of creating and spreading the awareness of sustainability.

Green Freight

Aside from renewing the fleet, CAL is also committed to improving the overall freight and logistics operational and energy efficiency. Through continually combining the partners from upstream and downstream and supply chain management, CAL actively supports the IATA e-freight paperless initiative and promote mobile and electronic service processes, as well as sustainable management of freight packaging materials. Additionally, it CAL promotes carbon offset and SAF programs with corporate members, striving to improve the overall ecological efficiency of its logistics operations.

Implement Conservation Policies

CAL recognizes that forest and biodiversity conservation contribute to climate stability and the sustainability of agriculture, food, public health, and economics. Moreover, they are key foundations for building global climate and environmental resilience. CAL has implemented the transportation policy of embargoing shark fins and experimental primates, has prohibited the use of protected species as food ingredients in the Groups’ service, has signed the United for Wildlife Transport Taskforce Buckingham Palace Declaration , and also has pledged to lead the Group and supply chain partners to jointly promote the operation of No Net Loss of biodiversity and Zero Deforestation through responsible procurement and supplier management practices. With continuous implementation of CAL’s “ Sustainable Development Best Practice Principles ”, “ Environmental and Energy Policy Statement ”, “ Sustainable Supply Chain Management Policy Statement ”, “ Supplier Code of Conduct ”, and “ Forest and Biodiversity Conservation Commitment ”, we aim to achieve the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals and combat global illegal wildlife trade.

Actions for the Earth