News / Lufthansa Cargo to supply SAF for Maersk airfreight clients

Photo - Lufthansa Cargo

Patchy global supply of sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) has led Danish carrier Maersk to partner with Lufthansa Cargo, which has “very good access” at its hubs.  

As part of the agreement announced today, Maersk will pay Lufthansa Cargo to use SAF on its behalf, with the carrier then able to pass the environmental benefits on to its airfreight customers that booked with ECO Delivery Air.  

A Maersk spokesperson told The Loadstar SAF was often unavailable at airports where Maersk operates and “Lufthansa Cargo has very good access to SAF from European suppliers, so it is a perfect partner for us”.

Maersk is only able to offer emissions reductions to its customers “after the SAF is consumed”.  

The Danish company told The Loadstar one customer involved was from the hi-tech industry, with cargo going between Europe and China. 

Lufthansa Cargo will use 400 tonnes of SAF on behalf of Maersk over the remainder of  the year, with an expected reduction of CO2 emissions corresponding to “at least” 1,200 tonnes, according to the carriers.  

Maersk aims to reach net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2040 “across all modes of transport, as well as other business areas like warehousing and container terminals”. 

Its head of energy transition, Morten Bo Christiansen, said: “The uptake and availability of SAF in the aviation industry is still limited. Our agreement with Lufthansa Cargo enables Maersk to contribute to an increase in the uptake.” 

Indeed, Jeremy Baines, chief commercial officer at bio-renewals technology platform EcoCeres, told The Loadstar earlier this year: “There’s a lot of catching up to do if you want to transition to another fuel. 

“SAF is very much a nascent industry, but, pun intended, it’s really starting to take off,” he added, and noted that “the challenge has been scaling-up technology as fast as possible”. 

CEO of Lufthansa Cargo, Ashwin Bhat, said: “With Maersk we are jointly making a valuable contribution with the new agreement… It is only through this interplay that change can be achieved sustainably”. 

The Loadstar questioned why, with SAF so famously in demand, Lufthansa Cargo would opt to sell it to Maersk rather than keep to sell to its own customers. 

Lufthansa explained: “In this particular SAF agreement Maersk is a customer of Lufthansa Cargo.”

It elaborated: “The agreement addresses Scope 1 emissions from transports operated by Lufthansa Cargo. These reductions are certified and allocated to Maersk’s logistics division (i.e. the airfreight forwarding division of Maersk, not the airline Maersk Air Cargo) and thus addresses Maersk ’s Scope 3 inventory via an Emission Mitigation Certificate.

“While the environmental attributes are transferred to Maersk, the SAF itself is solely utilized by Lufthansa Cargo.”

Mr Baines added that “the hard part has now been done” in regard to SAF, adding that it was now up to consumers, governments and legislators to incentivise and encourage the transition.  

“SAF can now be used. It’s really a very simple choice. It’s do you fly on fossil jet fuel, or do you fly on SAF?” he said.