Lufthansa publishes sustainability report 2008

Lufthansa has this month published a new issue of its "Balance" sustainability report giving a broad sweep of the Group’s activities, the advances it has made and its future objectives in the environmental, business, societal and social fields.

"Imperative as it is to achieve business success, we at Lufthansa are always aware of our special responsibility for the environment,” said Lufthansa Chairman and CEO Wolfgang Mayrhuber. "Environmental care is and will remain in the future one of Lufthansa’s uppermost corporate objectives."

Since 1991, Lufthansa has steadily decoupled growth in transport performance from resultant CO2 emissions. While transport performance has increased by 232 per cent over the past 17 years, fuel consumption has grown in the same period by only 121 per cent. Thus almost half the growth in the Group’s air traffic has been achieved without additionally burdening the environment. In 2007, the actually average fuel burn in the Lufthansa fleet was exactly 4.32 litres per 100 passenger kilometres.

Ongoing fleet renewal has contributed notably towards reducing specific fuel consumption. An aircraft, such as a Lufthansa Airbus A340-300, today burns around only 3.5 litre per 100 passenger kilometres. Lufthansa has placed aircraft orders, worth around 14 billion euros at list price, in pursuance of fleet modernisation, which will further improve the Group’s fuel efficiency. It has set its sights high in its new strategic environmental programme: Fifteen ambitious environmental objectives for sustainable development are spelt out in detail in the new issue of "Balance".

Countless surveys and rankings brought eloquent evidence in 2007 that Lufthansa enjoys, worldwide, a reputation as an excellent employer. The Group has taken on around 10,000 new staff on the payroll in Germany since 2006. It receives more than 100,000 job applications yearly. All in all, a total of 105,261 people, of which 42.4 per cent are women, are employed worldwide by the Lufthansa Group. The average age of the workforce is 40.3 years. The Group’s biggest single location with 35,222 employees is Frankfurt am Main. More details on the staffing structure as well as job opportunities and career development options are documented in the chapter on "Social Responsibility" in the Balance report.

The sustainability report 2008 contains another chapter on social commitment, manifested by the Cargo Human Care and HelpAlliance humanitarian aid initiatives or Lufthansa’s environmental and sports sponsoring activities. It also includes information on sustainability at SWISS.

"Balance", which informatively highlights the importance of sustainability at the Lufthansa Group, has been published since 1995. It can be ordered free of charge online at http://responsibility.lufthansa.com. The English version will be available at the end of July.