Air India will completely ban use of plastic in Alliance Air and Air India Express from 2nd October. Chairman and Managing Director of Air India Ashwani Lohani said this while addressing a workshop of Civil Aviation Correspondents in New Delhi today. Plastic tea cups will be replaced with sturdy paper cups and plastic tumblers will be replaced with paper tumblers.
The move follows a clarion call by Prime Minister Narendra to ban single use plastic during his Independence Day Address from the ramparts of Red Fort. A notification at the workshop, which is being circulated on social media, explained banana chips and sandwiches, which are presently packed in plastic pouches on Air India flights, will be offered in butter paper pouches.
Cake slices in the snack box will be replaced with muffins to avoid plastic wrapping. Special meals ordered by passengers in advance will use “eco-friendly” birch wood cutlery in place of plastic cutlery. Plastic tumblers and tea cups will be replaced by paper tumblers.