Shark in the sky: Austrian Airlines takes off with "sharkskin"

From December 2024, Austrian Airlines will be the first airline worldwide to equip its Boeing 777-200ERs with the innovative AeroSHARK surface technology. The fuselage and engine nacelles of a total of four aircraft will be coated with the sharkskin film developed by Lufthansa Technik and BASF. The films significantly reduced frictional resistance lowers CO₂ emissions and fuel consumption on long-haul flights.

AeroSHARK is a surface technology consisting of transparent ribs around 50 micrometers in size – the so-called riblets. It imitates the properties of a particularly aerodynamic sharkskin and thus optimizes the aerodynamics in relevant areas of the aircraft.

By applying a total of 830 square meters of riblet film per aircraft to the surface of the fuselage and engine nacelles, around 1 percent of the total fuel consumption per flight is saved. With four B777ER aircraft, the technology can achieve savings of around 2,650 tons of fuel and over 8,300 tons of CO₂. This equals approximately 46 flights from Vienna to New York.

A total of 17 Lufthansa Group aircraft have already been equipped with AeroSHARK – and the number is steadily increasing. The modified fleet includes one Boeing 747-400 from Lufthansa Airlines, 12 Boeing 777-300ERs from SWISS and four Boeing 777Fs from Lufthansa Cargo. Austrian Airlines will equip four of its six Boeing 777-200ER long-haul aircraft with the surface technology from December 2024. The conversion of these aircraft should be completed by March 2025.

The "sharkskin" technology is another important building block on Austrian Airlines' CO₂ reduction path. Together with the Lufthansa Group, Austrian Airlines aims to reduce its CO₂ emissions by 30.6 % by 2030 compared to 2019.

Published 11.09.2024