Austrian Airlines enables choice of sustainable aviation fuel

Photo: Austrian Airlines

Austrian Airlines passengers can now additionally select the use of sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) for their flight in the booking process. In doing so, they compensate for the CO2 emissions generated on their respective flight. The applied tool is called “Compensaid,” a development of Lufthansa Innovation Hub. It precisely calculates the amount of CO2 emitted and then offers a corresponding offset with SAF. Compared to conventional kerosene, SAF reduces CO2 emissions by up to 80 percent. It can also be fed into regular flight operations without infrastructure adjustments.

“The future of climate-neutral flying lies in sustainable fuel,” said Austrian Airlines CEO Alexis von Hoensbroech. “We have been emphasizing this for a long time. Electro-mobility, for example, will not be an option for aviation for some time yet, as the necessary batteries would be too heavy to get a plane in the air. I am therefore very pleased that with Compensaid, we are now giving our passengers the opportunity to make their individual journey climate-friendly by using sustainable fuel.”

Christine Wang, managing director for Lufthansa Innovation Hub, said, “We use the digital platform Compensaid to make compensation simple and integrate it seamlessly into the customer experience. We are very pleased to win Austrian Airlines for the offer.”

Currently, SAF is three to five times more expensive than conventional kerosene. This keeps demand low and production costs high. It is therefore essential to enable more efficient production and thus lower prices in the long term by increasing demand.

Through Compensaid, there is now a second option for Austrian Airlines passengers to offset the CO2 emissions of their air travel. In addition, there is the possibility to support climate protection projects, which Austrian Airlines offers in cooperation with Climate Austria. These include projects for the use of clean energy in Austria and Gold Standard projects in Africa that sustainably avoid CO2. Passengers can also choose a mixture of both offsets and determine the respective share themselves. Further information can be found on the Austrian Airlines website.