Further proof that environmental stewardship is becoming a big priority for the aviation industry comes from Swiss WorldCargo, which said it will introduce new “lightweight’ containers to its fleet during the next four years.
The company said the unit load devices (ULDs) will significantly reduce weight and, by extension, lower fuel consumption, costs and CO2 emissions.
Starting in December, the cargo division of Swiss International Air Lines Ltd. will start deploying the containers in its ULD fleet by replacing 150 of its LD3 — AKE devices. By 2014, the whole AKE fleet, which numbers over 1,300 devices, will be replaced in four steps by the new type of composite containers provided by ULD management partner Jettainer.
For many decades, international aviation has exclusively used aluminum containers for the transport of cargo and baggage. In the last few years, the demand for further weight reduction has inspired container manufacturers to research new, lighter composite materials such as glass fiber, Kevlar fiber or Dyneema. Most of these materials are completely recyclable.
About 120,000 trial runs and six months of material testing in collaboration with Süddeutsches Kunststoffzentrum Würzburg (a German institute for quality assurance monitoring) revealed that lightweight containers significantly reduce the transport costs and environmental impact of airline operations. For Swiss International Air Lines, the estimated reduction in CO2 emissions will amount to over 3,000 tons per year upon completion of the container replacement plan in 2014.
Swiss transitions to lightweight ULDs
