Deutsche Bank Buys 1,600 Tonnes of Sustainable Aviation Fuel from Lufthansa

Deutsche Bank has invested in the deployment of around 1,600 tonnes of sustainable aviation fuel with the Lufthansa Group, part of its effort to reduce the climate impact of business travel. The bank estimates the volume will save roughly 5,500 tonnes of carbon dioxide compared with conventional kerosene, equivalent to the emissions of about 520 Frankfurt-to-London flights on an Airbus A320neo. The agreement deepens a widening partnership between the two companies, which began cooperating on the Lufthansa Miles & More credit card in late 2025.

Sustainable aviation fuel is a "drop-in" fuel, meaning it is compatible with conventional jet fuel and can be blended with it without modifying aircraft or infrastructure. The Lufthansa Group says the SAF it uses, produced from biogenic residues, carries a lifecycle carbon footprint at least 80 percent lower on an annual average than fossil-derived kerosene. The airline commits to feeding the purchased volume into airport infrastructure within six months, though the fuel supports SAF use across its network rather than powering any single booked flight.

For Deutsche Bank, the purchase serves a specific target. Chief Sustainability Officer Jörg Eigendorf said SAF was an important instrument in the bank's goal of nearly halving its supply-chain carbon emissions by 2030 against a 2019 baseline, and that reliable corporate demand was needed to encourage producers to invest in scaling up production and bringing costs down. He described the approach as reducing emissions from business travel where possible and offsetting the remainder where feasible.

 

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That demand signal is a recurring theme in the SAF market, where high costs and limited supply have slowed adoption. Corporate purchases like this one are pitched as a way to build the reliable offtake that justifies new production capacity. Around 1,700 companies worldwide invested in SAF with the Lufthansa Group in 2025, and the airline said the volume of SAF it sold more than doubled over the previous year.

Frank Naeve, senior vice president of global sales and distribution at Lufthansa Group, said Deutsche Bank's decision to support SAF at this scale demonstrated the growing importance of more sustainable flying in the business travel sector, and that companies could make a measurable contribution to cutting the climate impact of their travel through concrete SAF investments.

 

Source: Lufthansa Group