British Airways has placed an order for more than 100 hybrid vehicles in an effort to reduce carbon emissions from its car fleet by a third.

The airline will equip its sales force with Honda Civic Hybrids from the summer, thanks to a deal with Masterlease.

The move is expected to reduce emissions per car from three to two tonnes of CO2 per year.

Mal Murphy, procurement general manager for BA, said: “We have set ourselves targets not only to cut emissions in the air but also on the ground and each driver will be reducing their carbon footprint by one third every year through this strategy.”

John Kingston, Honda UK’s environment manager, said the deal was one of the largest for hybrid vehicles in the UK.

“BA's decision is a ringing endorsement for the Civic Hybrid, its excellent environmental credentials and demonstrates the fleet sector’s increasing demand for cleaner vehicles,” he said.

Clive Forsyth, sales and marketing director for Masterlease said: “The objective of the exercise was to get the most environmentally friendly vehicle currently available and look at it from a whole life perspective.

"In addition BA wanted to keep its drivers motivated and keep the cost base neutral.

“All these have been achieved and we have been able to accelerate the change over of the fleet into the next three months as opposed to over the next four years and reduce the new vehicle period of hire from 48 to 36 months, at no additional cost to BA.”