Swiss International Air Lines, Breitling team up to promote sustainable aviation fuel

Photo: Swiss International Air Lines Ltd.

Swiss International Air Lines and Swiss watch manufacturer Breitling have entered into a new partnership, which is the first of its kind in Switzerland.

Breitling will now purchase sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) for all its work-related travel on Swiss-operated flights. Breitling thus becomes Swiss’ first corporate client to commit entirely to the use of SAF for its work-related air travel.

By doing so, Breitling will reduce the carbon-dioxide emissions generated through such air travel by some 80 percent.

Breitling will also offset the remaining CO2 emissions generated via investments in high-value climate-protection projects.

In committing to the use of SAF, Breitling is not only reducing its own carbon footprint, but it is also making a key contribution to promoting sustainable air transport.

SAF is currently only available in limited quantities. Through its commitment to using it, the Swiss watch manufacturer is sending a strong signal to the markets to expand the production and the use of such sustainable fuels.

“Breitling and Swiss can already look back on a long and successful partnership, and I am delighted that we can now further intensify this,” said Dieter Vranckx, CEO of Swiss. “Breitling is serving here as an exemplary pioneer. And it’s collaborations like this which will substantially drive the further development of sustainable aviation fuels and, in doing so, accelerate the transition to more sustainable air travel.”

Swiss also recently began offering its corporate clients various new products to reduce the carbon emissions generated by their business-travel activities.

These externally validated and certified SAF offers are attracting sizeable interest in the corporate world, and further such SAF collaborations are set to follow.

“For us, sustainability is not a project, it’s a journey we’re on to transform our business,” added Georges Kern, CEO at Breitling. “Achieving CO2 neutrality on our work-related Swiss flights is an important way for us to reduce our emissions and, through the purchase of SAF, make a small contribution to the sustainability transition of the aviation industry, which we’ve been closely linked to since the 1930s.”

SAF is of nonfossil origin and closes the carbon cycle. The SAF presently used by Swiss and the Lufthansa Group is made from biogenic waste and generates 80 percent fewer carbon-dioxide emissions than its fossil-fuel counterpart.

The synthetic fuels of the future will be almost entirely carbon neutral. The use of SAF is an essential element in the air transport industry’s endeavors to reduce its CO2 emissions.

In view of this, Swiss and the Lufthansa Group are actively promoting the development, trialing and adoption of SAF.

By participating in research and pilot projects and in SAF alliances, the Lufthansa Group is also steadily acquiring the relevant expertise in the technologies involved and the associated market developments.

Swiss and the Lufthansa Group are continuously developing products and solutions to make carbon-neutral air travel possible for all their customers. The offers presently available to corporate clients and private individuals provide various options for offsetting the carbon-dioxide emissions generated by an individual flight—purchasing a commensurate volume of SAF, contributing to climate-protection projects or a combination of the two.