Each June, Lufthansa releases a report called “Balance” which summarizes a variety of accomplishments realized by the airline for the previous calendar year. It’s akin to an annual report, but without the detailed financial data that typically is found in an annual report. “Balance” also provides an annual update on Lufthansa Group’s fleet, social and environmental initiatives as well as demographic information regarding Lufthansa’s corporate structure.
For the purposes of this post, I’ll focus on a few key Lufthansa accomplishments as far as their environmental initiatives are concerned. To learn more about other accomplishments, you can read about them in the Balance Report. It’s actually a very good read, with great information, charts, graphics and photos.
Environmental Stewardship Initiatives/Accomplishments:
- Lufthansa set a new fuel consumption record. For 2012 Lufthansa burned only 4.06 liters (1.07 gallons) to fly one passenger 100km (62 miles), making air travel more efficient than most hybrid automobiles. This is a 3% improvement over 2011’s performance while carrying .2 percent more passengers in 2012.
- Between now and 2025, Lufthansa will invest €22 billion in fleet renewal, taking delivery of 236 new aircraft.
- Testing is underway to eliminate the need for aircraft to taxi to or from the runway under it’s own engine power. Expect in the not too distant future for aircraft to be taxied to and from the runway with electric powered tugs or electric drive motors on the aircraft. The objective is to further increase fuel efficiency as well as to reduce ‘airport noise’.
- In December of 2012, A test was conducted to determine how much weight an A340-300 could lose by simply removing unnecessary items from the aircraft (excess magazines, blankets, hangars, trolleys, etc). The exercise was carried out by several Lufthansa employees who boarded the A340 and started removing excess items from the aircraft. This activity demonstrated that by reducing an aircraft’s weight by only 100 kilograms but removing ‘extra stuff’ from each aircraft in the fleet, Lufthansa would save €2.6 million in fuel costs annually. Hard to fathom, but the numbers don’t lie.
- On January 12, 2012 Lufthansa marked the completion of exhaustive testing and research into the use of bio-fuels when a 747 used a blend of bio-fuel on a flight from Frankfurt to Washington DC.
- On May 8, 2012 Lufthansa received the Gold-Eco award from Airline Transport World magazine for its accomplishments and commitment to environmental issues.
The list doesn’t end there. 2012 had a slew of accomplishments and the launch of many new endeavors. As I said earlier, take a few minutes to browse the “Balance 2013” report. What the Lufthansa Group accomplished in a year is impressive.
