British Airways is leading the way by becoming the first airline at Heathrow Airport to introduce an all-electric bus service for staff between Terminal 5 and the company’s headquarters at Waterside.

The bus is 8.1m long with a seating capacity for 24 passengers plus standing room, and has a special “green” themed British Airways livery. It will operate between T5 and Waterside covering 17,710 miles a year, cutting around 20 tonnes of CO2 emissions in comparison to the current fossil fuelled buses.

Mark Wiles, Property Compliance Manager for British Airways said: ”Introducing this environmentally friendly battery powered bus is a further commitment by British Airways in cutting our carbon footprint at Heathrow through improving our ground energy usage.”

Antony Goozee, Business Development Director for Flights Hallmark added: “The electric bus is a new and innovative step for Flights Hallmark and British Airways, it is vital that we continue to look at alternative methods for powering vehicles and reducing our emissions”.

Flights Hallmark, who operates the service for British Airways, purchased an Optare Solo EV battery-powered bus for the BA 5 service that commenced on September 5 2011.