LONDON – On February 21, South Korean-based flag-carrier Korean Air has announced that it will adopt using sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) on its route to Paris from Seoul.
The announcement comes as part of a couple of recent announcements made by Korean Air on helping to reduce their carbon footprint. It has also been shown that the new SAF can reduce emissions by up to 80% from manufacturing to consumption by aircraft.
The flight in question, KE901, is primarily operated by a Boeing 777-300ER aircraft and departs Seoul’s Incheon International Airport at 14:00 local time and arrives at Paris’ Charles De Gaulle International Airport at 18:30 local time, with an average flight time of around 11 hours.
Alongside their Boeing 777-300ER aircraft, which Korean Air has 25 of, they also operate in terms of widebody aircraft, four Boeing 777-300’s, 12 Boeing 777-200ERs, 10 Boeing 787-9 Dreamliners, 10 Airbus A380s that are currently stored due to the COVID-19 pandemic, eight Airbus A330-200’s and 22 Airbus A330-300’s.
On top of this existing fleet, they also have a further 10 Boeing 787-9 Dreamliners on order as well as 20 Boeing 787-10 Dreamliner’s on the backlog with the American manufacturer.
Back on February 9, Korean Air had also announced that it has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Incheon International Airport Corporation (IIAC), Airbus, and Air Liquide to co-operate on supplying aviation hydrogen fuel and developing relevant infrastructure.
This MoU helps to align Airbus’ 2035 goal of developing the world’s first zero-emission hydrogen-powered commercial aircraft as well as paving the way for stakeholders to actively co-operate in developing hydrogen infrastructure at airports and provides the ability to establish a roadmap for introducing hydrogen to ground handling logistics.
Not only have Korean Air begun to adopt the above for reducing their carbon footprint, but it was also announced back in 2021 that Korean Air has partnered with SK Energy, a Korean oil giant, to purchase SAF to be used on the Korean domestic network, namely by Korean Air’s Boeing 737’s, Airbus A220’s and soon-to-be delivered Airbus A321neo’s.
