SWISS becomes world's first airline to use fuel made from sunlight

Switzerland’s flag carrier, SWISS, has become the world’s first airline to integrate solar fuel into its flight operations, marking an important milestone in the journey to make the aviation industry more sustainable. 

SWISS takes delivery of first batch of Synhelion solar fuel

This week, SWISS could officially say that it was the first airline in the world to fly using solar fuel, after the Swiss start-up Synhelion delivered its first 190-litre barrel of synthetic crude oil, manufactured using solar energy, to a refinery in northern Germany. The oil was processed into certified aviation fuel and then fed into SWISS’s flight operations infrastructure via the fuel supply system at Hamburg Airport. 

According to a Synhelion press release, the fuel delivered by the company was around 7 percent of the fuel required for a flight between Hamburg and Zurich. Not a lot, but it was described by the company as a “hugely significant” symbolic start, “confirming that Synhelion’s technology works and is ready for the next steps ahead”. 

Swiss-developed technology reduces CO2 emissions

SWISS and its parent company, the Lufthansa Group, have been working with Synhelion, a Swiss clean-tech company, since 2020 to help develop sustainable aviation fuels. In 2022, SWISS became an investor in the company, and in June 2024, Synhelion opened its first solar fuel production facility in Jülich, northern Germany. 

The “sun-to-liquid” fuels are created by using concentrated solar heat to manufacture “syngas”, which can then be processed into aviation fuel. Syngas is not only renewable but also produces around 85 percent less CO2 than kerosene sourced from crude oil. The technology was developed at the Swiss university ETH Zurich. 

Following its successful first delivery, Synehlion is now looking to power up production and get sustainability certification from the European Union, so that solar fuel can be used more extensively in the aviation sector. The company hopes to enter the commercial market as early as 2027.