As the aviation industry is trying to reduce its impact on the environment, Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF) is the readily available momentary solution. Its cost is however higher than regular kerosene and airlines have been introducing “green fares”, where passengers choose to pay their own share of SAF or support an offsetting initiative.
Lufthansa became the first international aviation group to introduce such an option in 2022. Normally selected and paid during booking, one of the Lufthansa group airlines has now introduced another option for passengers to offset their emissions at a later stage.
Eurowings has introduced the “SAFt” organic fruit smoothie as a beverage option aboard its flights, named after a wordplay between SAF and saft, which means juice in German. “Passengers can offset the flight-related CO2 emissions of an average Eurowings route length for 19.50 euros as of now”, the airline explains. “Travellers can thus make a spontaneous and uncomplicated contribution to more sustainable flying.”
After covering the cost of the smoothie itself, the €19.5 is split in two offset methods. SAF accounts for the reduction of 10% of the carbon emissions, while the other 90% are compensated by contributing to a “high-quality climate project portfolio with the partners myclimate, Climate Partner and SQUAKE.”
The smoothie itself is also produced sustainably, the airline says. Made by the Nuremberg based start-up Kraftschluck, it has no added sugars and 99.9% of the fruit it contains comes from German organic farms with short transport routes.
SAF is produced from biogenic waste from renewable sources, such as used cooking oils, and has a carbon footprint that is around 80% lower than that of fossil kerosene over its entire life cycle. As a drop-in fuel, SAF is compatible with fossil kerosene and is blended with it before being transported to the airport and then fed into the airport infrastructure. Currently, there is no refuelling of individual flights with pure SAF, however it is a goal the industry is working towards, Virgin Galactic completed the world’s first transatlantic flight powered by 100% sustainable aviation fuel.
