Deutsche Bank and the Lufthansa Group have reached an agreement on the purchase of alternative aviation fuel. As part of this cooperation, the bank will finance a volume of approximately 1.600 tons of so-called Sustainable Aviation Fuels (SAF).
According to calculations by the companies involved, this measure should lead to a reduction in carbon dioxide emissions of approximately 5.500 tons. The agreement builds on an existing business relationship, as Deutsche Bank has been the issuer of credit cards for Lufthansa's frequent flyer program Miles & More since autumn 2025.
The contractually agreed-upon amount of fuel is fed into the airline group's distribution system as so-called "drop-in" fuel via the existing airport infrastructure. These synthetic or biogenic fuels are substances that can be blended with conventional fossil kerosene without requiring any technical modifications to the aircraft engines or refueling systems. The aircraft used by bank employees are not directly refueled; instead, the allocation of emissions reductions is handled purely on a balance sheet basis via corresponding certificates according to the Greenhouse Gas Protocol Standard, in order to reduce Scope 3 emissions in the financial institution's supply chain.
Economic analysts view such large orders in the corporate aviation sector with some skepticism regarding their actual market impact. While the Lufthansa Group recorded an increase in the volume of synthetic fuels (SAF) sold through corporate programs last year, alternative fuels still only account for a fraction of the total fuel consumption of global aircraft fleets. This is due to the significantly higher production costs compared to fossil kerosene, as well as considerable bottlenecks in global production capacity. Critical market observers point out that voluntary purchases by large corporations can hardly solve the fundamental structural problems and the lack of price competitiveness of synthetic fuels in the short term without regulatory requirements.
Furthermore, the aviation industry is under pressure from upcoming legal frameworks, such as the gradual introduction of mandatory blending quotas under EU regulations starting in the late 2020s. For airlines like Lufthansa, agreements with major customers are therefore also a tool to secure long-term purchase contracts with producers and to partially transfer the financial risk of expensive fuel procurement to corporate clients. Whether this form of accounting for CO2 reduction in business travel will lead to a real acceleration of the industrial mass production of alternative fuels or primarily serves the companies' regulatory reporting remains a subject of debate among experts.