The airline industries are putting a lot of effort into protecting the environment and are adopting several actions. The Lufthansa Group and SWISS are stepping up to reduce carbon dioxide emissions with the help of technology. They have formed a strategic alliance with the Swiss based Climeworks Company in order to do this. Climeworks, with its direct air capture technology, is a global leader in the carbon removal industry. It has created a cutting-edge method for taking carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere. “Direct Air Capture,” or “DAC,” is the process of extracting carbon dioxide from the air. This is a crucial technique for taking carbon dioxide straight out of the atmosphere and burying it deep underground. Situated in Iceland, Climeworks manages the largest carbon storage facility and DAC globally.
Signing a carbon dioxide removal deal, Climeworks’ first airline partners are SWISS and Lufthansa Group. This new partnership will be a long-term commitment to cutting-edge technology that lower carbon dioxide emissions from the aviation sector and its flight operations. By doing this, SWISS is further advancing Swiss Innovation.
According to Dieter Vranckx, the CEO of SWISS, , “ We are very proud to be the first airline in the world to collaborate with Climeworks and make this substantial contribution to the scaling up of a technology that should help take the airline sector a long way towards achieving its net-zero objective. Sustainability is both a growing issue among our customers and a cornerstone of our corporate strategy.”
The technologies developed by Climeworks DAC provide a way to obtain atmospheric carbon dioxide, which may be utilized as a raw material to produce Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF), the next generation of synthetic fuel. By significantly increasing the use of SAF and promoting climate technology, the SWISS and its sibling airlines within the Lufthansa Group will continue to explore various ways and means for their customers to bring greater sustainability to their air travel operations. SWISS provides its customers with a range of climate protection programs that allow them to purchase SAF and/or invest in these projects to offset the carbon emissions from their flight, so making their travel more sustainable.
The Chief Commercial Officer of Climeworks, Jan Huckfeldt stated, “We are delighted to have secured SWISS and the Lufthansa Group as our first partners from the aviation sector for our direct air capture technology. Their interest and involvement confirm the demand within the airline industry for quality long-term solutions to eliminate CO2. Through their involvement on the carbon removal front SWISS and the Lufthansa Group are playing a pioneering role in achieving the net-zero emissions within the airline sector.”
As the company’s four pillar strategy—technological advancement, enhanced infrastructure, operational measures, and economic instruments—was developed based on the International Air Transport Association’s (IATA) plan, Lufthansa Group’s sustainability efforts will intensify in 2024.
In addition to investigating the usage and development of SAF, Lufthansa is investing in new aircraft equipped with the newest fuel-saving technologies.
Finally collaborating with Climeworks SWISS and Lufthansa Group, this new cooperation will initially run until 2030 and assist the aviation industry in using advanced technologies to remove carbon dioxide from the environment.
By: Rida Khan (Aviation Author)
Instagram A/c: aviationauthor.ridakhan
