Louis Dreyfus Armateurs to Build, Own and Operate Low-Emission Ships
Airbus has announced plans to renew its entire fleet of chartered transatlantic vessels with a trio of dual-fuel, wind-assisted RoRo ships.
Airbus, Europe’s largest aeronautics and space company, has contracted Louis Dreyfus Armateurs to build, own and operate the vessels, which will be deployed from 2026 to ferry aircraft sub-assemblies between production plants in France and the U.S.
The new fleet is expected to more-than-halve annual transatlantic CO2 emissions from 68,000 to 33,000 tons by the end of the decade, Airbus said, helping to achieve its target of cutting overall industrial emissions by up to 63 percent from 2015 levels over the same period.
“The renewal of our marine fleet is a major step forward in reducing our environmental impact,” said Nicolas Chretien, head of sustainability and environment at Airbus.
“The latest generation of vessels proposed by Louis Dreyfus Armateurs are more fuel efficient than their predecessors, using cutting-edge technologies like wind-assisted propulsion. This demonstrates our determination to lead the way in decarbonizing our sector by innovating not just in aviation, but across all our industrial operations.”
Airbus said the new vessels would be powered by a combination of six Flettner rotors and two, dual-fuel engines capable of running on maritime diesel and e-methanol – a low-carbon methanol produced from green hydrogen and captured CO2.
Routing software will optimize the vessels’ journey across the Atlantic, it added, maximizing wind propulsion and avoiding drag caused by adverse ocean conditions.
The vessels will have the capacity to ship some seventy 40-foot containers and six single-aisle aircraft sub-assembly sets – wings, fuselage, engine pylons, and tail planes – compared to three or four sets with its current fleet.
The new ships will support Airbus’s plans to boost production of its A320 aircraft to 75 per month by 2026, the company said.
Airbus and Louis Dreyfus Armateurs are regular exhibitors at Breakbulk Europe.
