The airline Eurowings and Cologne/Bonn Airport are leading the way on the subject of sustainability and are launching an ambitious project together that will contribute to protecting ecosystems and forests in the Rhineland. The two companies have begun planting 6,000 trees in the Königsforst nature reserve in the immediate vicinity of their Cologne/Bonn home base – more trees than the combined employees of Germany’s largest leisure airline Eurowings and Cologne/Bonn Airport. The initiative is the first of its kind in which a German airline and a domestic airport are working hand in hand.
“Together with the entire Lufthansa Group, we also want to lead the competition in terms of sustainability. To this end, we are investing billions in the world’s most efficient aircraft and have now set up more than 50 projects on board and on the ground at Eurowings alone that help to conserve resources as much as possible,” says Jens Bischof, CEO of Eurowings.
However, many topics in aviation, such as carbon savings through new engines, are very technical and complex and therefore difficult to communicate. Bischof: “That is why we want to make climate and environmental protection visible and tangible on our doorstep as well. The initiative in Cologne’s Königsforst is another milestone on this path.”
Eurowings and Cologne/Bonn Airport jointly launched the project together and are equally involved as partners. Thilo Schmid, Chairman of the Executive Board of Cologne/Bonn Airport: “Climate protection and sustainability have been firmly anchored in our corporate strategy for many years. As an airport, we naturally assume ecological, social and societal responsibility. The project in Cologne’s Königsforst is another building block in our numerous sustainability-oriented activities. It is precisely because of its regional significance in the immediate vicinity of the airport and in one of the most popular local recreation areas for the people of Cologne that it has a very special significance for us as a company rooted in the Rhineland.”
The Königsforst is a 2,519-hectare forest area east of Cologne that is part of the larger Bergische Heideterrasse area. The popular nature reserve serves people of the region as a recreational area and is also a habitat for numerous birds and other animals. In order to maintain this, vacant areas caused by drought in recent years and infestation by bark beetles are currently being extensively reforested. Eurowings and Cologne/Bonn Airport are doing just that by planting new mixed forest through the Cologne-based impact Start-Up “Planted”.
Eurowings takes its responsibility for effective climate protection seriously and, as part of the Lufthansa Group, has a clear goal: by 2030, the company’s own net carbon emissions are to be halved compared to 2019, and by 2050 Lufthansa Group as a whole aims to achieve a neutral carbon balance. In particular, Eurowings is focusing on fleet modernization with investments in 13 aircraft from the A320neo family, the most modern and efficient medium-haul jets in the world.
Eurowings is also the first airline in Germany to offer customers simple carbon compensation for their flights; through climate protection projects in Germany.
