CER Actions

Regarding CER actions, the three aviation entities have several similarities between them. While the actions are grouped under different categories between the entities, they still support similar goals. All three entities include fleet renewal and modernization in their actions, both for noise reduction and fuel efficiency reasons. Other noise

abatement related actions from Finnair are resident-favorable departure and arrival times, as well as the use of continuous descent approach. Lufthansa also includes departure and approach optimization in their actions, and take an active part in noise

abatement research, indicating that they are interested in contributing to solving flight noise issues on a more general level. By using noise-reducing vortex generators, Lufthansa is paying attention to reducing the noise-levels in their older fleet as well.

All the airlines offer the possibility for their customers to offset their CO₂ emissions through donation to environmental causes. This suggests that airlines are currently placing part of the financial burden caused by offsetting CO₂ emissions on their customers’ shoulders. This places part of the responsibility for sustainable aviation on the customer, which could be considered fair at the time being as consumers should consider the consequences of their travel habits on the environment. However, to fight the CO₂ emissions caused by flying with standard jet fuel, all three aviation entities are using sustainable aviation fuel to varying extents. Finnair offers the supporting of flying with biofuel as an emissions compensation option for its customers, whereas Lufthansa Group is taking a more active part of being part of research and testing of alternative fuels. Lufthansa Group is hence contributing to the future of sustainable aviation fuels and investing resources in the process, suggesting they place high value in the matter.

Air France-KLM is building a factory in the Netherlands to allow them to produce their own sustainable aviation fuel in the future. KLM also increased their bio-kerosene over 2018 and Air France took part in Green Deal to support the surfacing of aviation biofuel industries. This suggests that Air France-KLM is taking an independent approach to increasing their sustainable aviation fuel consumption in the future, as well as supporting the upcoming of a more extensive biofuel industry for the whole aviation industry to collaborate with in the future.

All the airlines studied also include cabin waste and weight reduction actions in their CER-processes. All airlines show concern for the need to remove unnecessary cabin items and decrease the amount of single-use plastics and plastic packaging. The reduction of weight and plastic appears to be directed at cabin catering items on all studies airlines. These items, often small-sized and single-use, provide an opportunity for the airlines to cut down on single-use plastics and unnecessary items, which leads to weight reductions and eventual CO₂ emission decreases. An example from the results is Air France cutting down the weight impact of the Air France Magazine, and Finnair updating their amenity kits packaging to be plastic-free, as well as switching to carton-packed milk served on its flights within Finland and Europe. In addition, Finnair is going to give more responsibility and freedom to its cabin staff in the future regarding making sustainable and eco-friendly decision when working in the cabin and serving customers.

This would suggest that the airline wants their staff to represent their CER-values in cabin-related environmental matters in a more emphasized way. Based on this, the cabin staff of Finnair will in the future take a more active part in promoting eco-friendly standards in the cabin, promoting an environmentally friendly image of Finnair and reducing waste, plastic and consequently weight and emissions.

Regarding energy and resource consumption and management, both Finnair and Lufthansa include renewable energy sources in their CER-actions. Finnair has solar panels on their cool cargo terminal generating energy for the building, and Lufthansa mentions that they are maximizing energy from 100% renewable sources and using this energy to power as many Lufthansa Group buildings, as possible. The group is also using emissions-free propulsion systems in its vehicles, such as electric solutions, as well as supporting needs-based airport infrastructures with virtual and digital operating systems. These results indicate that the aviation entities are paying attention to their energy consumption on the ground as well and are taking concrete action to lower this consumption. This is especially important when it comes to the airlines’ local emissions in their base countries. Using renewable sources of energy is also cost-efficient in the long run, giving the airlines following this practice an economic advantage.

As the only aviation entity studied in this research, Lufthansa Group included environmental management systems as a CER-target area in their sustainability report.

The group aims at expanding their environmental management system, approved by ISO14001 and EMAS, to more airlines and locations in the group. This suggests that Lufthansa Group is serious about creating and extending their environmental management guidelines across the group, unifying their members and locations in the aim of improving their environmental footprint.