LOT POLISH AIRLINES FUELS ITS AIRCRAFT WITH GREEN KEROSENE

The Voice of Chandigarh| Travel Trade Reporter:

LOT Polish Airlines is planning to fuel its aircraft with sustainably produced kerosene. Therefore, Poland’s national flag carrier has now signed a cooperation agreement with Polish multi-energy group PKN ORLEN.

PKN ORLEN is building a production plant in the city of Plock to convert hydrogenated vegetable oils (HVO) into biofuel or bio-components for aviation fuel. Vegetable oils, used vegetable cooking oils and algae oils are used for this purpose. After its completion, the plant will produce around 300,000 tonnes of HVO annually, which already corresponds to half of the fuels produced by the ORLEN Group today.

Thanks to this cooperation, LOT Polish Airlines will receive sustainably produced aviation fuel (SAF). With the help of SAF, life cycle emissions can be reduced by up to 80 per cent compared to conventional kerosene.

The agreement to purchase SAF is an important step for LOT Polish Airlines towards more sustainability and environmental protection in air transport, also against the background of the IATA resolution NetZero to make commercial air traffic CO2-neutral by the year 2050. Rafal Milczarski, President and CEO of LOT Polish Airlines, said: “We see the trust placed in us by our passengers as both an honour and an obligation. We not only want to provide them with the highest safety standards and comfortable air transportation. We also want make an important contribution to the preservation and protection of the environment. That is why I am very pleased about the cooperation with PKN ORLEN as the production of kerosene from renewable raw materials represents another initiative with which LOT Polish Airlines is reducing greenhouse gas emissions.”

Daniel Obajtek, CEO and President of the PKN ORLEN Management Board: “The aviation industry is an excellent example of how the energy and fuel industry is changing. That is we are developing and investing in clean, advanced products. According to our estimates, the share of sustainably produced fuels in aviation will amount to 3 percent in 2030. Accordingly, we see enormous potential for further growth in this area in line with our ORLEN2030 strategy.”

LOT Polish Airlines is a modern carrier connecting Central and Eastern Europe with the rest of the world. LOT’s offer includes, inter alia, direct long-haul flights to airports in the United States, Canada, China, Japan, South Korea, India and Sri Lanka. The Polish carrier has been consistently increasing the number of its flights to those destinations, thus strengthening its position in the Central and Eastern Europe. It operates its long-haul flights with Boeing 787 Dreamliner, one of the most advanced wide-body aircraft in the world. Present in the sky since 1929, the Polish carrier is the 12th oldest airline worldwide, being one of the most internationally recognisable Polish brands.