Balance 2015 ENG

Cyclean®, the water-based engine wash developed by Lufthansa Technik, saves airlines time, maintenance costs and above all fuel. The company is researching the use of alternative blasting materials, such as CO2 dry ice pellets, to make engine cleanings possible in permafrost regions as well. Lufthansa Cargo Above all by operating the new Boeing 777F freighters, Lufthansa Cargo now flies more efficiently than ever before. Since 2005, the Company has successfully in- creased its fuel efficiency by 15.8 percent and thus already achieved over half of its long-term goal of 25 percent. In order to reduce the weight of loaded aircraft perceptibly, Lufthansa Cargo has introduced freight containers made from ultra-light composite materials. Further- more, the freight specialist has continuously optimized the loading of its Boeing MD-11F aircraft in recent years. Distributing the weight and volume of cargo optimally improves aerodynamics and consequently lowers fuel consumption by 494 tonnes per year. In addition, since April 2014 Lufthansa Cargo has used empirical values to deter- mine with greater accuracy the quantity of kerosene its aircraft need for taxiing. The ensuing lower takeoff weights have cut fuel consumption by about 270 tonnes per year. The freight airline also saves fuel by using updated taxiing times and an optimized selection of runways at Frankfurt Airport. Yet the most significant contribution to fuel conservation in the years ahead will come from fan blade recontouring. The leading- edge contours of the thrust-producing engine fan blades are progressively eroded in daily operations. Polishing these contours improves the fan blades’ aerodynamics, which in turn increases an engine’s efficiency by 0.4 percent. As a result, Lufthansa Cargo will be able to conserve about 1,600 tonnes of kerosene per year. Lufthansa Technik For many years, Lufthansa Technik has worked on making flying more efficient through its innovations. In this spirit the company developed the Cyclean® engine wash which saves time, maintenance costs and above all fuel. At the beginning of 2015 the 40,000th engine wash was car- ried out. The water-based procedure can now be used in temperatures down to -10 degrees Celsius thanks to further develop- ment (see page 10, From “sharkskin” to TaxiBot: Innovations at Lufthansa Technik). Another example of an innovative idea from Lufthansa Technik that has found its way into everyday aircraft maintenance is the overhaul of turbine blades in CFM56-5C and CF6 engines. The background is that the turbine blades’ edges roughen with time as a result of erosion. Their perfor- mance decreases due to wear, while kero- sene consumption increases. The overhaul of these parts involves computer-guided abrasive finishing of the edges at Lufthansa Technik, so that they function as efficiently as new ones, which saves the airline the expense of replacement blades. In the framework of the research project FAMOS, Airbus and Lufthansa Technik, in cooperation with other partners, are de- veloping a highly automated system for cleaning, stripping, painting and applying aerodynamic aircraft surfaces by 2017. The surfaces, which are modeled on the struc- ture of sharkskin, save about one percent of kerosene, lighten the burden on the environment and lower operating costs. Lufthansa CityLine As the first Group airline to do so, Lufthansa CityLine systematically uses actual flight data to improve efficiency in flight operations. Among these in-flight data are location information such as longitude and latitude as well as central parameters such as altitude, speed and fuel consumption. Compiled, this data helps the airline to operate flights more efficiently. To accom- plish this goal, intelligent software interlinks three dimensions: the characteristics of the planned flight, the actual flight and the most economical flight. On basis of this broad scope of data, flight routings can be further optimized or the required quantity of reserve fuel can be calculated even more accurately, for example. Sustainability Report Balance // Issue 2015 // Lufthansa Group // 49

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