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Large forwarders are driving environmental change in air freight, with more carbon-neutral flights available to shippers with deep pockets.
Kuehne + Nagel today announced an agreement with American Airlines (AA) to use more than 11 million litres of sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) to enable its customers to enjoy carbon-neutral flights.
The amount is not game-changing, but is a step in the right direction; 11 million litres will enable a 787-9 to fly 25 times around the world, or a 777 freighter to fly 12 million kg of cargo from London to Dallas.
K+N will buy the fuel from AA and offer it to customers “prepared to pay a premium for the SAF option”, said a K+N spokesperson.
“As the standard air freight rate already includes the conventional jet fuel kerosene, the option ‘SAF usage’ comes with a premium per kg, or a premium per litre of SAF used. As we want to promote SAF usage and facilitate transition to carbon neutrality, we are building an attractive offer for our customers.”
SAF costs two-to-three times more than traditional jet fuel – meaning even that the recent fuel price rises, 33% in the past year, will not help.
Lufthansa Cargo has done a similar deal with DB Schenker for a series of regular flights. The carrier’s CEO, Dorothea von Boxberg, revealed last week that while DB Schenker was hoping to find customers that would pay the extra for a carbon-neutral flight, the forwarder must pick up the bill if customers were not willing.
In January, K+N, which aims to be carbon-neutral by 2030, announced an agreement with Air France-KLM Cargo to launch a carbon-neutral freight lane between Los Angeles and Amsterdam. AF-KLM, meanwhile has started a programme to encourage customers to invest in SAF, which need to scale up production. KLM and partners are set to open a SAF plant in the Netherlands in 2023.
While some shippers…