Lufthansa Technik is to coat four Boeing 777-200ERs from sister carrier Austrian Airlines with its low-drag AeroShark surface film.
Austrian is the latest Lufthansa Group airline to benefit from the film – developed in collaboration with chemical company BASF – with 17 of the group’s long-haul aircraft already equipped with the AeroShark technology.
The film, measuring 50 micormilimeters thick, replicates shark skin, and reduces aerodynamic drag on the airframe, lowering fuel consumption and emissions by 1-2%. About 830sq m (8,930sq ft) of the film will be used to cover the fuselage and engine nacelles.
“We take our responsibility seriously and take every possible step to reduce CO2 emissions within our flight operations,” Francesco Sciortino, says chief operating officer at Austrian Airlines,
“At 1%, the sharkskin’s efficiency potential may not sound like much, but in total it will save thousands of tons of CO2 per year on long-haul flights.”
Total savings of the Austrian installation are expected to be about 2,650t of fuel and more than 8,300t of CO2 over a service life of four years. That corresponds to about 46 flights between Vienna to New York, Lufthansa Technik says.
The re-fit will be complete by March 2025, the company adds.
So far, the film has been installed on one Lufthansa 747-400, all 12 777-300ERs operated by Swiss International Air Lines, and four 777Fs that fly for Lufthansa Cargo.
AeroShark is one of several quick-win innovations that promise to help reduce aviation emissions by small increments as the industry searches for ways to reach its net-zero commitment by 2050. Others include lightweight wing and fuselage components, technical intelligence and data, and new materials for cabin builds.
Headline emission reductions will come from sustainable aviation fuels, new propulsion and airframe designs, streamlined airspace management, and carbon-removal technologies. But their availability at effective scale remains years away.
