ULD sharing platform skypooling saves 25,000 tons of CO2 each year

Global aviation must become more sustainable. Along with long-term and complex alternative drive and fuel solutions, there is one quick and immediate way to slash emissions: Jettainer’s sharing platform skypooling can currently make annual savings of around 25,000 tons of CO₂ by avoiding unnecessary deadhead ULD flights – but has much greater potential.

This no-cost platform allows airline controllers to share ULDs around the globe. Skypooling helps avoid deadhead flights, reducing global aviation’s fuel use, costs, and CO₂ emissions.

Taking a more deliberate approach to ULDs as a resource has massive potential to make aviation more sustainable. Avoiding just one customary AKE container from going on an intercontinental flight empty can save an average of 65 kilograms of CO₂. The savings are as high as roughly 3,000 kilograms for a stack of pallets.

As a ULD sharing platform, skypooling sets itself apart by allowing the shared use of ULDs. After all, avoidable deadhead flights are used to correct global imbalances far too often. With its automatic matching function, sky pooling is a practical way to solve under stocks or overstocks. More than 50 airlines at more than 250 stations around the globe already use the platform, helping to make ULD use more sustainable.

This approach can currently save roughly 25,000 tons of CO₂ annually. By way of comparison, around 2.5 million trees would be needed to capture a similar amount of CO₂. An additional lost and found service also puts unused ULDs back into logistics circulation to better tap available resources.

Jettainer’s Managing Director, Thomas Sonntag, stressed: “The time to make significant CO₂ savings is now. As the ULD partner for many airlines, we think it is our responsibility to show ways that we can get there. Our relatively new platform is already making an important contribution in this regard by using resources more responsibly. We want to get handling agents and airports involved much more in the future so that we can achieve even more together and help make aviation more sustainable.”

The platform has already been nominated twice for the TIACA Sustainability Award in recognition of its sustainable and smart approach. Along with skypooling, Jettainer is also working in other areas of the ULD business to improve sustainability and avoid emissions. This work includes developing more lightweight and robust ULDs in close partnership with customers and innovative software solutions deploying artificial intelligence to consistently make ULD management more efficient and environmentally friendly. 

Jettainer is also the exclusive distribution partner for squAIR-timber, an innovative system from trilatec GmbH that is made from carbon fibers and replaces wooden skids in airfreight pallets.These products weigh around 80 per cent less, making substantial savings on fuel consumption and helping to reduce CO₂ emissions from global aviation.