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It was sold to airline passengers as a bold, green initiative that would save thousands of tonnes of carbon dioxide from their flights.

But Virgin Atlantic has quietly abandoned a plan to tow Boeing 747 jumbo jets to special “starting grids” at the end of runways after the aircraft manufacturer found that pulling the landing gear would seriously weaken it.

Sir Richard Branson, the president of Virgin, has launched a series of green initiatives in the past two years in an attempt to claim the mantle of the most environmentally responsible airline. But an analysis by The Times has found that most are having little, if any, impact on the airline’s emissions.

Environmental groups argue that the initiatives are “green-wash”, accusing Virgin of promoting them for PR value without making clear that it will be many years before they will begin to deliver environmental benefits.

Virgin claimed that starting grids would save up to two tonnes of CO2 per flight because aircraft engines would not be started until ten minutes before take-off. It also said that people living near airports would benefit from “much lower noise levels and dramatically cleaner air”.

Sir Richard even persuaded Arnold Schwarzenegger, Governor of Californina, to endorse the plan in 2006. When Virgin started testing in December 2006, it suggested that many of its aircraft would be involved and that airports around the world would swiftly embrace the idea.

Now it admits that the project has been suspended indefinitely, because of the landing-gear problem and because existing facilities at airports could not accommodate the starting grids.

A Virgin spokesman confirmed there had been only six towed departures at three airports: Gatwick, Heathrow and San Francisco. Boeing revealed that it had analysed the results of the trials and found that towing an aircraft placed too much stress on the landing gear and reduced its life. A Gatwick spokesman said: “We are not building any starting grids.”

Jeff Gazzard, a board member of the Aviation Environment Federation, said: “Virgin is using bogus green initiatives in an attempt to make passengers feel less guilty about flying and persuade regulators to allow the industry to carry on growing at its present unsustainable rate.”

The Virgin spokesman said it was wrong to criticise the airline for seeking environmental solutions, claiming its rivals were doing relatively little. He said: “In a few years’ time there will be significant change.”

With other Virgin initiatives, it was found that only 1 per cent of business-class passengers took up the chance of a Heathrow Express train ticket instead of a chauffeur-driven car. And only 5 per cent of biofuel had been used instead of normal aircraft kerosene in a flight described as creating “the first airline in the world to fly on renewable fuel”.

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