Lufthansa launches new platform for travelers to replace flights’ fossil fuel with sustainable one

20 / 08 / 2019

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Lufthansa launched a new platform for travelers to replace fossil fuel of their flights with Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF). Airline passengers can reduce up to 80 percent of their CO₂ emissions.

“Compensaid” provides a transparent overview of a person’s travel history and associated CO₂ emissions across all airlines.

CO₂neutral, synthetic fuel is one of the most promising alternatives for making the future of aviation climate-neutral. Industry and nationwide deployment has failed so far due to limited quantity and high cost. With the launch of “Compensaid” (www.compensaid.de), the new sustainability platform, the Lufthansa Innovation Hub and the Lufthansa Group are now making it possible for travelers to offset their individual carbon footprint using so-called Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF). This represents passengers an entirely new approach to offsetting CO₂with SAF in a transparent way.

“Flying benefits our world in many different ways – it connects people, helps bridge cultural divides, intensifies business relations, and enables interactions to take place across long distances. But flying also has negative climate effects, which need to be counteracted – not least from a digital perspective. Every individual traveler can take action: With “Compensaid,” we provide people with a tool that shows them the climate effects of their flights. This impact can be reduced significantly with the help of innovative technologies such as sustainable fuel,” explains Gleb Tritus, Managing Director Lufthansa Innovation Hub.

“Compensaid” combines an innovative tracking tool for flights of all airlines worldwide with a sustainability platform that makes it possible to directly offset one’s personal CO₂ emissions. Travelers then receive a detailed evaluation of their entire travel history, which not only includes flight distance, time and destinations, but also shows the efficiency of the respective aircraft type, individual fuel consumption, and the associated CO₂ emissions.

Travelers have two options for CO₂ offsetting: For the first time, they can replace fossil aviation fuels one-to-one with SAF. The platform calculates the market-based surcharge in comparison to fossil kerosene. Travelers willing to pay this surcharge can use it to cover their individual kerosene consumption with the climate-neutral fuel. The Lufthansa Group will continue to pay the basic rate for the kerosene. The SAF purchased as part of the offsetting process will be deployed on Lufthansa flights within a period of six months. This is the first online platform of its kind to provide end customers with a transparent, quick, and effective way to offset their CO₂ consumption when flying using CO₂neutral fuels. As an alternative, travelers can also use “Compensaid” to support a reforestation project in Nicaragua and thus reduce CO₂emissions over the long term.

Compensaid’s first partner is the Swiss climate protection foundation myclimate, a long-standing partner of the Lufthansa Group in the field of voluntary CO₂offsetting. The company will also be working with the Corporate Fuel Management of the Lufthansa Group, whose fuel experts purchase the certified alternative fuel globally and supply it to Lufthansa flight operations.

“Sustainable Aviation Fuel is a groundbreaking way to produce sustainable kerosene. We are delighted to support “Compensaid,” an innovative platform that for the first time enables customers to invest in CO₂neutral fuel for their flights,” says Thorsten Luft, Head of Fuel Management at Lufthansa Group.

Travelers can use the first test version of “Compensaid,” which launched in the beginning of August at www.compensaid.de. In response to expected customer demand, plans in the works to expand the partner network for offsetting and to extend the service to all means of transport and their CO₂emissions.