With some 500,000 container movements per year, the 14-kilogram (31-pound) difference over conventional containers amounts to a weight saving of 7 million kilograms (15.4 million pounds). Therefore, using these lightweight containers to transport cargo and luggage will reduce fuel consumption by 2,000 tonnes and CO2 emissions by 7,000 tonnes per year. “The new, lighter containers are still extremely robust and strong in spite of being almost completely made of plastic,” said Karl-Rudolf Rupprecht, board member operations at Lufthansa Cargo. “Replacing all of our LD3 standard containers brings us a good deal closer to our goal of reducing our specific CO2 emissions by a quarter by 2020 compared to 2005.”
