Global airline body IATA has called for “urgent action” on better understanding of the climate effects of non-CO2 emissions from aircraft at high altitudes, in particular cirrus cloud formation from persistent contrails. Scientists have long warned that contrails have a significant net warming impact on the climate but a new report by IATA says significant knowledge gaps remain in the complexity of contrail science and calls for more data and research. However, it is pushing against a move by the EU to introduce from January 2025 mandatory monitoring, reporting and verification (MRV) of non-CO2 emissions from all flights departing, arriving as well as within the European Economic Area (EEA). An alliance of European low-cost airlines – Ryanair, easyjet and Wizz Air – together with NGOs led by Transport & Environment have now written to urge the European Commission to resist IATA’s lobbying to restrict the scope to intra-EEA flights.

All sides accept that aviation’s climate impact extends beyond CO2 emissions, with non-CO2 effects such as contrails and nitrogen oxides also contributing to global warming. However, with uncertainties over the scale of the problem and how to tackle it, action by industry and policymakers has so far been lacking, although that is beginning to change. A number of airlines are taking part in contrail avoidance trials, while others have installed monitoring equipment on their aircraft. The EU, on the other hand, now wants access to extensive non-CO2 emissions data from flights before implementing a policy decision that could eventually result in airlines paying for their non-CO2 as well as CO2 emissions under the EU Emissions Trading System (EU ETS). The UK government has indicated it intends to carry out a policy consultation on the non-CO2 issue sometime this year.

Following its newly-released report ‘Aviation Contrails Climate Effect: Tackling Uncertainties & Enabling Solutions’, IATA is calling for “a strengthening of collaboration between research and technological innovation, coupled with policy frameworks to address aviation’s non-CO2 emissions through more atmospheric data.” The lack of high-resolution, real-time data on atmospheric conditions – particularly humidity and temperature at cruising altitudes – hinders precise contrail forecasting, argues the report.

“The industry and its stakeholders are working to address the impact of non-CO2 emissions on climate change, particularly contrails,” said IATA’s Director General, Willie Walsh. “To ensure that this effort is effective and without adverse effects, we must better understand how and where contrails form, and shrink the uncertainties related to their climate impact.”

This requires more trials, collection of more data and improvement of climate models, alongside developing mature technologies and operations, he said.

“Formulating and implementing regulations based on insufficient data and limited scientific understanding is foolish and could lead to adverse impacts on the climate,” he warned. “That is why the most important conclusion from this report is to urge all stakeholders to work together to resolve current gaps in the science so that we can take effective actions.”

The study, conducted with a number of industry organisations and research institutions, recommends a course of action over the period to 2050. In the immediate term, until 2030, the priority should be on mitigating CO2 emissions, while increasing airline participating in sensor programmes, continuing scientific research and improving humidity and climate models for the purposes of contrail mitigation, it says. In the mid-term (2030-2040), action should be taken for data transmission, continuous validation of models and encouraging aircraft manufacturers to include provisions for meteorological observations, as well as selected avoidance.

Over the longer term (2040-2050), the report expects aircraft to be continuously supplying data, with models and infrastructure in place to provide reliable results. By then, there should also be a more complete understanding of the non-CO2 effects from alternative fuels, it forecasts.

“These action items collectively aim to mitigate the climate impact of aviation while advancing scientific understanding and technological capabilities,” it says.

However, IATA is dismissive of the EU’s plans to collect non-CO2 data from flights as of next January and for the European Commission to come up with a legislative proposal by the beginning of 2028 to expand the scope of the EU ETS to include non-CO2 aviation effects.

The proposal could serve as “a first-stage experiment that attempts to achieve a baseline estimation of the non-CO2 effects of aviation,” says IATA. “However, it is currently not feasible to validate the output from the experiment to ensure that it accurately represents reality.

“Studies have shown that estimating the formation of individual contrails using past weather and trajectory data could lead to incorrect results 50-80% of the time. An MRV system for non-CO2 emissions today could support further research thanks to additional data but the science is not mature enough to allow confidence in its implementation at a policy level.

“It is conceivable that by attempting to avoid the formation of contrails and reduce reported non-CO2 emissions, operators could inadvertently increase their CO2 emissions. The complex and likely trade-offs amongst different non-CO2 emissions, and between these and CO2 emissions are still poorly understood.

“Considering all the challenges and uncertainties, introducing an MRV system as early as January 2025 would not serve to mitigate aviation’s non-CO2 effects under the EU ETS.”

The decision to include non-CO2 MRV was agreed by the European Parliament and member states last year and incorporated as an amendment to the EU ETS Directive 2003/87/EC. While MRV under the EU ETS in respect of CO2 emissions is restricted to intra-EEA flights, the new non-CO2 rule also applies to all flights that depart or arrive at an EEA airport.

IATA recommends airline participation in the MRV framework should be voluntary, given its “experimental nature”, and  its application scope should be “strictly intra-EU” to mirror that for CO2.

“Any intention to expand beyond the current EU ETS application scope for aviation would imply a legal risk of extraterritorial impact and would work counter to any MRV implementation,” it argues. “Furthermore, the probability of contrail formation is highly dependent on the region: mid-latitudes have a higher probability of contrail formation than the tropics or the equator, so contrails affect different regions differently.”

However, a policy paper by European NGO Transport & Environment (T&E) responds that full geographic scope is essential to ensure the credibility of the scheme. “It allows a better understanding of the impacts of long-haul flights, which research shows to cause more warming and present more promising mitigation opportunity,” it says. “A reduction in the scope would significantly limit the amount of data and the opportunities to mitigate non-CO2 effects beyond intra-EEA flights.”

The paper notes that shipping companies are now required to monitor maritime non-CO2 emissions for voyages to, from and within the EU. “Aviation cannot seek another exemption while other sectors are required to do more.”

It adds: “As non-CO2 emissions account for two thirds of aviation’s climate impact and adversely affect human health, the aviation industry must no longer avoid its responsibility but instead take decisive action to confront its complete environmental impact. The MRV scheme is a necessary first step aimed at better understanding these effects with a view to explore mitigation pathways. Any divergence from the original full scope would only lead to a large part of aviation emissions remaining hidden from regulators and consumers alike.”

Commented T&E Aviation Policy Manager Krisztina Toth: “Non-CO2 emissions were recognised as a climate problem 25 years ago. A monitoring tool offers a much needed first step that will help bring more understanding of the full climate impact of aviation. But some legacy carriers are lobbying to weaken the proposal, using uncertainty as an excuse.”

Full scope alliances

T&E has formed an coalition on the issue with low-cost carrier easyJet, as well as industry actors and other NGOs to urge the Commission to maintain the full scope of the non-CO2 MRV.

In a letter to the director-generals responsible for climate and transport, as well as the climate minister for Belgium, which currently holds the EU presidency, the group said: “It is critical that the full geographic scope is retained, as it is the only scientifically sound basis to understand the impact of aircraft types and geographies, and allow a better understanding of the impacts of long-haul flights, which research shows to cause more warming and present larger mitigation opportunities. It is vital that activity in areas such as the North Atlantic region, with a high concentration of contrail formation, are monitored and understood.

“Given the volume of their contribution to this issue, any deviation to exclude long-haul routes from the scope would be a significant missed opportunity which would empty the MRV of most of its meaning from a climate impact mitigation perspective, and undermine the scientific basis for future action. It would also go against the original agreement between the co-legislators.”

In a separate letter to the two Commission director-generals, easyJet has teamed with rival low-cost carriers Ryanair and Wizz Air to present a similar joint position on maintaining the full scope of non-CO2 MRV. “We call on the Commission to reject IATA’s attempts to restrict monitoring of non-CO2 effects to intra-European flights,” they said in a statement.

“We do not understand the intent of this effort to undermine the MRV scheme and why significant parts of the industry do not want to further the understanding of the science of non-CO2 effects,” says the letter.

“The purpose of the scheme is to support the development of a robust scientific evidence base. There is currently simply too much uncertainty around non-CO2 effects to drive policy development or to even reach a coherent understanding of the impact of non-CO2 on warming. This is precisely why we need such a system and why it must not be limited to intra-EU flights.

“Without robust science, it will not be possible to develop a policy measure to address non-CO2 effects, so if the EU chooses to restrict the MRV it is by default choosing to remove the option of a future policy instrument.”

IATA’s concern over the extraterritorial application of the non-CO2 MRV to airlines from third countries arriving at and departing from EEA airports has justification. The EU ETS in its original scope was similar but it faced considerable international opposition from countries such as China, India, Russia and the United States. China threatened to withdraw a sizeable order of Airbus aircraft for one of its carriers. The US passed legislation, which is still in force, that provides powers to prohibit its airlines from complying with EU ETS regulations. In the face of such opposition, and with the expectation that ICAO would come up with a market-based global scheme to address carbon emissions from international flights (ICAO member states later agreed the CORSIA carbon offsetting scheme), the EU backed down and restricted the scope of the EU ETS to intra-EEA flights on a time-limited basis.

The letter from the three LCCs acknowledges “there are reasonable concerns” around the scale of MRV data required from airlines and third country airline involvement. However, they say: “We think these can be resolved through a pragmatic approach to the implementation of the MRV.

“The concern that foreign governments and their carriers might in future object to having to report non-CO2 emissions is also not a reason to restrict the measure to intra-EU flights. These carriers are already subject to reporting requirements under CORSIA and will be subject to reporting requirements under ReFuelEU Aviation. There is no technical reason why extra-EU flights should be exempted from reporting their non-CO2 emissions.

“Options to tackle non-EU country objections, should they arise, could involve limiting or delaying the enforcement for non-EU carriers, or other options involving EU funding to address any imbalance in costs. The scope restriction to intra-EU flights is not a necessary outcome.”

Article updated May 10 to include a link to the full letter from the three LCCs.

Photo: DLR

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Carriers meeting at the annual Airlines for Europe (A4E) Summit in Brussels called on policymakers to “supercharge” the production of sustainable aviation fuels across Europe through the introduction of competitive tax credits and the funding and support for nascent, emerging and established SAF projects or fuel producers. It is crucial that Europe supports affordable and reliable domestic production, they said in a “call to action”, particularly in the face of significant market pressure from global players outside of Europe. Meanwhile, A4E member Lufthansa Group has reported more than one million passengers have opted for its Green Fares tickets, which includes a provision for SAF offsetting, one year after their launch. European renewable fuels producer Neste has started supplies of blended SAF at Schiphol under an agreement with Emirates, while Sasol and Topsoe have launched their new joint venture Zaffra, located in Amsterdam, that will focus on SAF development and delivery.

At the forefront of A4E’s “call to action” is what it describes as “competitive decarbonisation” in a global market, to ensure Europe is a world leader in aviation’s net zero transformation.

“The next few years provide a real opportunity for change and we are setting out how we want to future-proof flying,” said A4E Managing Director Ourania Georgoutsakou at the opening to the trade body’s Summit in Brussels. “We are today making a pledge to improve the future of flying but can only do this if policymakers make the vital changes to support our decarbonisation efforts, providing real airspace reform, ensuring our sector remains competitive and completing a true single aviation market.”

A4E member airlines have been involved in a number of SAF commitments this month. International Airlines Group (IAG), made up of Aer Lingus, British Airways, Iberia and other carriers, signed a 14-year agreement with US startup Twelve for the supply of 785,000 tonnes of e-SAF, the groups biggest single SAF deal to date and the first e-SAF procurement by a European airline group (see article).

Following its purchase of 500 tonnes of SAF from Austrian energy company OMV last year, Ryanair reported it would take an additional 500 tonnes in 2024. Under an MoU between the two companies, Ryanair has access to purchase up to 160,000 tonnes of SAF during the period to 2030.

Another A4E member, AEGEAN, which first flew with SAF in 2021, is to expand its use of SAF under an agreement with Shell and MOH Aviation, who will supply a “significant” quantity of blended SAF at Stockholm Arlanda and London Heathrow airports. The Greek carrier said this marked the beginning of a gradual expansion of its SAF uplift programme, “where available”, throughout its entire network.

According to Lufthansa Group, an average of 3% of passengers have used its Green Fares tickets, with the tickets being selected by 11% of business class travellers via the Lufthansa Group portals. In total, travellers have offset around 77,000 tonnes of CO2. Offsetting of flight CO2 emissions is through SAF as well as by a contribution to high-quality climate protection projects. The group ensures the amount of SAF required for offsetting is fed into the airport infrastructure within six months of purchase.

Green Fares are available with Lufthansa, Austrian Airlines, Brussels Airlines, SWISS, Edelweiss, Discover Airlines and Air Dolomiti on more than 730,000 flights per year within Europe and to Morocco, Algeria and Tunisia. The group has been testing Green Fares on selected long-haul routes since November 2023.

Meanwhile, Finland-headquartered Neste has launched Neste Impact for businesses looking to reduce the carbon footprint of their air travel and transport activities. The solution is aligned with the Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi), enabling businesses to credibly report achieved emission savings and follows a book-and-claim approach. The related emission reduction achieved is third-party verified and further validated through the ISCC SAFc registry. Neste ensures the SAF is supplied to a partner airline and the purchased amount is verifiably used to replace fossil fuel.

UAE carrier Emirates has activated its fuel agreement with Neste at Amsterdam Schiphol and 2 million gallons of blended SAF will be supplied into the airport’s fuelling system over the course of 2024. The blended SAF will comprise over 700,000 gallons of neat SAF. The airline will track the delivery of SAF into the fuelling system and the environmental benefits using standard industry accounting methodologies.

Global chemicals and energy company Sasol and Danish carbon emission reduction technology specialist Topsoe have launched their joint venture, named Zaffra, which will be based in Amsterdam. The partners say the new company, to be headed by former Shell Aviation boss Jan Toschka, aims to advance SAF production and technologies.

Photo © Lufthansa Group

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A Ryanair deal with global energy group Repsol and the launch by Italian carrier ITA Airways of its ‘Fly with SAF’ programme, together with the signing of an agreement with logistics provider DB Schenker, and a Neste agreement with World Fuel Services are among a number of new European sustainable aviation fuel initiatives. Ryanair and Repsol have signed a MoU to advance the supply of SAF at airports used by Ryanair across Spain and Portugal. The ITA programme offers freight forwarders and shippers the possibility of supporting the purchase of SAF and thus reducing their CO2 emissions while shipping their goods. In Hungary, energy and petrochemicals company MOL, in cooperation with Neste, Budapest Airport, Wizz Air and airport fuel supplier RÜK have started commercially testing a SAF supply chain to prepare the fuel supply system ahead of the EU SAF mandate introduction in 2025. With greater volumes of SAF available from Neste, World Fuel Services is increasing the number of European airports it can supply with SAF from 13 to over 40.

Ryanair’s agreement with Repsol gives Europe’s largest low-cost carrier access to up to 155,000 tonnes (52 million gallons) of SAF between 2025 and 2030 – equivalent to over 28,000 flights from Dublin to Madrid – and saving around 490,000 tonnes of CO2 emissions.

“SAF plays a key role in Ryanair’s Pathway to Net Zero strategy and our goal of using 12.5% SAF by 2030,” said Ryanair DAC CEO Eddie Wilson. “Achieving this requires multiple different feedstocks and production methods, and we’re encouraged that Repsol are looking at multiple solutions. This agreement helps Ryanair secure access to around 15% of this ambitious goal.”

ITA Airways’ Fly with SAF has been designed for cargo companies and companies whose staff fly for work and contributions will be entirely used by the airline to cover the extra cost of SAF, with customers choosing their level of commitment. DB Schenker is the first partner to enter the programme.

The Italian flag carrier is taking part in the 2023 edition of the SkyTeam airline alliance’s The Sustainable Flight Challenge, following its success last year when it won two awards. ITA will participate with four flights involving a round-trip Airbus A330 flight on May 20 from Rome Fiumicino to Miami and its return journey the same day, followed by return flights between Rome and Barcelona on May 28 using an Airbus A320neo. Activities will include the use of SAF, more sustainable catering, waste recycling and use of compostable materials, and use of accredited carbon offsets meeting internationally-recognised standards.

The SAF testing at Budapest Airport started on May 10 with Wizz Air flights using a blend of Neste MY Sustainable Aviation Fuel supplied by MOL. Wizz Air’s three newest Airbus A321neo aircraft were fuelled with a total blend of 23.5 tonnes containing 37% SAF and 63% Jet A1 fuel. The aircraft carried passengers from Budapest to Paris and several other European destinations.

Commented Yvonne Moynihan, Corporate and ESG Officer at Wizz Air: “Our SAF test, which is ahead of the legislative mandates coming in 2025, demonstrates that industry collaboration is one of the most impactful ways to address the current climate challenge. The initiative at Budapest Airport is a testament to our broader strategy, with alternative fuels playing a significant role.”

MOL itself is aiming to enter the SAF production market. “So far, we have mainly taken steps in road transport fuels. At our Danube refinery, for example, we have been co-processing vegetable oils, used cooking oils and animal fats with fossil components since 2021 to produce more sustainable diesel,” said Csaba Zsótér, SVP of MOL Group’s Downstream Fuels. “We are now moving into a new area, working with our partners to gain experience in aviation fuels to make aviation more sustainable. I am confident that the first SAF shipment, which is now being launched as a commercial test, will be followed by many more.”

The expansion of production by Neste is enabling fuel supplier World Fuel Services to increase deliveries of SAF to its commercial, business and general aviation customers at over 40 European airports, paving the way for future accessibility of SAF to more than 100 airport locations presently in World Fuel’s European network.

“We are confident this agreement and deeper collaboration with Neste will serve to accelerate our ability to support customers in their decarbonisation ambitions across the globe,” said Duncan Storey, VP Supply Aviation Europe, World Fuel Services.

Responded Alexander Kueper, VP EMEA Renewable Aviation at Neste: “We are excited to expand our collaboration with World Fuel as we increase our annual SAF production capability to 1.5 million tons per annum by the beginning of 2024.”

Photo: ITA Airways Airbus A350 in ‘Born to be sustainable’ livery

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Ryanair has commenced using a 40% blend of sustainable aviation fuel in all its operations from Amsterdam’s Schiphol Airport through a new agreement with renewable fuel producer Neste, advancing the carrier’s goal of 12.5% SAF use across all its flights by 2030. The European low-cost airline did not disclose details of the volume of fuel to be acquired or the term of the agreement. The deal builds upon a recent MoU between Ryanair and Shell through which the energy company will supply SAF at more than 200 European airports served by Ryanair between 2025 and 2030. Neste has started providing renewable diesel fuel to power ground service vehicles at Schiphol, which is targeting net zero emissions by 2030. The airport has proposed a night closure, a ban on private jets and the scrapping of plans for a new runway as part of becoming “quieter, cleaner and better”.

Ryanair operates a total of 63 flights per week from Schiphol, flying to both Dublin, the airline’s home base, and the Spanish resort of Malaga. Thomas Fowler, the airline’s Director of Sustainability, said the new deal with Neste, which took effect this month, boosted Ryanair’s use of SAF at Amsterdam from one third of its departures to all services. “Increasing the use of SAF is a fundamental pillar of our Pathway to Net Zero by 2050 decarbonisation strategy,” he said. “This increase at Amsterdam will reduce greenhouse gas emissions of our flights from there by 32%.”

However, the Amsterdam deal will make only an incremental difference to Ryanair’s total decarbonisation effort, given the carrier’s steep growth projections for the next five years. In its recent Q3 financial update, the airline said it operated more than 3,200 flights each day across a network of 2,450 routes, serving 236 airports with a fleet 523 aircraft, and flagged a total of 168 million passenger journeys for the full financial year. It also forecast a rise to 185 million passenger journeys in 2024, 205 million in 2025 and 225 million in 2026.   

In addition to the recent partnership with Shell, which the airline said could potentially provide access to 360,000 tonnes of SAF, or 120 million gallons, over a five-year period, Ryanair continues to introduce new, more fuel-efficient, Boeing 737 MAX aircraft, of which it already operates more than 80 from a total order of 210. As well, the airline recently signed a $175 million agreement with Aviation Partners Boeing to retrofit new split scimitar devices to the wingtips of its existing fleet of more than 400 Boeing 737-800NG jets that would help reduce aerodynamic drag in flight and cut fuel consumption by up to 1.5%. Ryanair estimates that the devices, the first of which have already been installed, will reduce annual fuel consumption by more than 65 million litres and carbon emissions by 165,000 tonnes.

“Decarbonising aviation is more important than ever, and we are proud to support Ryanair in achieving their ambitious Pathway to Net Zero by 2050,” said Alexander Kuper, VP EAME for Neste’s renewable aviation division. “Increasing the usage of SAF to all flights departing from Schiphol is a major milestone enabling Ryanair to substantially reduce greenhouse gas emissions of its operations at the airport.”

Neste has also signed SAF agreements this year with three other European carriers – Brussels Airlines, Wizz Air and Finnair. In January, Brussels Airlines received the first supply of Neste SAF pumped to Brussels Airport via NATO’s Central European Pipeline System (CEPS). Neste also reached agreement with Wizz Air, providing the airline “the opportunity to purchase” 36,000 tonnes of SAF per year for three years, starting in 2025, for use in its European and UK operations. Finnair has purchased 750 tonnes of SAF from Neste as part of its ambition to achieve carbon neutrality by 2045. The airline said this was sufficient to power around 400 flights between Helsinki and Stockholm if using unblended 100% SAF.

In addition to its SAF deals with airlines, Neste has begun supplying HVO100 renewable diesel product to replace conventional diesel fuel in all ground handing vehicles and machinery at Schiphol, where 40% of vehicles are already electrically-powered.  “This is a significant step on the way towards a zero-emission ground operation in 2030,” said Denise Pronk, Head of Sustainability for the airport’s management company Royal Schiphol Group. “The vehicles for which there are currently no electric or hydrogen alternatives available can run on renewable diesel. Everyone on airside, where the loads are moved to or from aircraft, is making use of it.”

While Ryanair is planning to cut its emissions at Schiphol, the airport is at the centre of controversial attempts by its main shareholder, the Dutch government, to further reduce aircraft emissions and noise by introducing measures including a ban on flight departures between midnight and 6am, and arrivals between midnight and 5am.

The decision, announced by Royal Schiphol Group, was temporarily blocked by a Dutch court after the airline industry successfully argued the airport operator acted without required consultation.

Welcoming the court’s preliminary decision, the International Air Transport Association (IATA) said the Dutch government had unilaterally decided to reduce flight movements at Schiphol Airport from 500,000 to 440,000 per year.

“We believed no legal basis existed for this reduction,” said IATA. “It violates international treaties and European regulations. Governments can lower the number of flight movements in order to reduce noise, but only after having a careful process, consisting of, for example, assessing the current noise level, setting a noise goal and considering alternative measures. This did not occur.”

Joining IATA in its legal action were KLM Royal Dutch Airlines, Air Canada, United Airlines, JetBlue, Lufthansa, British Airways, Vueling, FedEx and advocacy group Airlines for America (A4A).

Justifying its future ban on private jets and small business aviation, the airport operator said this sector caused a “disproportionate amount of noise nuisance and CO2 emissions per passenger – around 20 times more CO2 compared to a commercial flight.” Private jet flights to holiday destinations make up 30-50% of all such flights from Schiphol, it added.

The night time and private jet measures would apply no later than 2025-2026, expects Schiphol. It also wants to keep 2.5% of available take-off and landing slots for cargo flights, which it believes are under threat due to international slot regulations. However, cargo flights will have to conform with new tighter rules for noisier aircraft and the new night closure measure.

The airport has also abandoned plans for an additional parallel runway and, together with central government, is setting up an environmental fund for the local area. Between now and 2030 it intends investing a total of €70 million ($76m) in innovative construction concepts, home insulation and area development “for an improved living environment”.

“Schiphol connects the Netherlands with the rest of the world. We want to keep doing that but we must do it better,” commented Ruud Sondag, CEO of Royal Schiphol Group, on the measures. “The only way forward is to become quieter and cleaner more rapidly. We have thought about growth but too little about its impact for too long. We need to be sustainable for our employees, the local environment and the world.

“I realise that our choices may have significant implications for the aviation industry, but they are necessary. This shows we mean business. It is the only way, based on concrete measures, to regain the trust of employees, passengers, neighbours, politics and society.”

Photo: Ryanair (Piotr Mitelski)

Further commitments have been announced by major airlines in Europe and the US for sustainable aviation fuel, collectively totalling around 550 million gallons. Air France-KLM has signed an MoU with its long-term fuel supplier TotalEnergies for up to 800,000 tonnes of SAF, or 264 million gallons, for its group of airlines, while low-cost European carrier Ryanair has partnered with Shell for another 360,000 tonnes, or 120 million gallons, and US operator JetBlue will take at least 92 million gallons of blended product from Fidelis New Energy. The three deals add to other significant offtake agreements this year by each of the airline groups as they ramp up their decarbonisation activities. Meanwhile, Virgin Atlantic is to purchase 70 million gallons of SAF over seven years as part of a new agreement with joint venture partner Delta Air Lines. The fuel, which will be produced by Gevo, will be used on flights from the US West Coast.

The Air France-KLM agreement with TotalEnergies, a strategic partner since 2014, specifies the supply of 800,000 tonnes of SAF over 10 years, with deliveries commencing in 2023. The fuel will be used by Air France, KLM and Transavia largely for flights departing from French airports, in line with national SAF blending requirements, as well as from the Netherlands. The fuel will also comply with the airline group’s policy that any SAF it procures must not compete with human food or animal feed, that it not be derived from palm oil and that it be certified as compliant.

As of earlier this year, KLM flights from Amsterdam Schiphol have been operating with a minimum of 0.5% SAF in their jet fuel and the French government has introduced a 1% SAF mandate on flights from French airports, a level that is expected to rise to 2% in 2025 and 5% in 2030 in line with proposed EU regulation. Crop-based fuels have been excluded from use in the French mandate.

“Air France-KLM is fully committed to advancing SAF production in Europe and around the world,” said CEO Benjamin Smith. “This MoU with TotalEnergies is another building block to further the development of a French SAF industry that can meet the airlines’ needs. This therefore marks a fundamental milestone in the successful decarbonisation of our business. We are continuing to step up our efforts to reduce the impact of our operations as quickly as possible.” 

TotalEnergies is targeting 1.5 million tonnes of SAF production by 2030 using waste and residues including used cooking oil, animal fats and synthetic fuels. “This new partnership with Air France-KLM exemplifies the excellence of industry and French aerospace in committing to a more sustainable aviation sector,” said its CEO Patrick Pouyanné, adding biofuel development was a company priority. “By directly reducing the carbon intensity of the energy products used by our air transport customers, we are actively working with them to achieve net zero emissions by 2050, together with society.”

In recent initiatives, Air France-KLM group airlines have operated a range of flights using between 16% and 30% SAF sourced from TotalEnergies.

The latest SAF deal coincides with confirmation that under the group’s scope 1 and 3 emissions reduction targets, Air France Group and KLM have been assessed and validated under the Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi) as aligning with the ‘well-below 2 degrees Celsius’ objective determined as part of the 2015 Paris Agreement on climate. The strategy is primarily centred on reducing direct and indirect CO2 emissions by 30% per passenger/km by 2030 compared to 2019.

In another European partnership, low-cost carrier Ryanair has signed an MoU with global energy company Shell for the supply of SAF to more than 200 airports across Europe, in particular the airline’s biggest bases in Dublin and London Stansted.

Through this deal, the airline expects to access up to 360,000 tonnes, or 120 million gallons, of SAF between 2025 and 2030, with the fuels produced via multiple technology pathways and using a range of sustainable feedstocks. It estimates that using this amount of SAF would reduce CO2 emissions from its flights by more than 900,000 tonnes, equivalent to the output of over 70,000 Dublin-Milan services.

“SAF plays a key role in our Pathway to Net Zero strategy, and also our commitment to a target of 12.5% SAF by 2030,” said Thomas Fowler, Ryanair’s Sustainability Director. The agreement with Shell would enable the airline to procure around 20% of the SAF needed to meet this target, he said, while progressing its aggressive growth strategy, which estimates that passenger volumes will reach 168 million in FY2023, en-route to a target of 225 million per year by FY2026. 

Jan Toschka, President of Shell Aviation, said their agreement demonstrated that both companies viewed SAF as the key to net zero aviation emissions. “It is fantastic to build on our existing relationship with Ryanair to now look at what we can achieve together on sustainability,” he said. “Leadership and bold actions are needed to accelerate the decarbonisation of flight.”

In the US, JetBlue and Fidelis New Energy (FNE) have signed an MoU on SAF, through which the airline will source at least 92 million gallons of blended product over a five-year term from 2025. The fuel will be designed to achieve negative lifecycle carbon intensity by integrating carbon capture and sequestration (CCS) and biomass energy with CCS (BECCS). The SAF will be produced at FNE’s Gron Fuels GigaSystem at the Port of Baton Rouge, Louisiana, which the company estimates will produce 1 billion gallons per year of SAF, renewable diesel and other low carbon products. The new plant will also use waste process heat to generate power, producing biogas from by-products and using flexible processing methods to produce carbon-negative SAF from existing and emerging feedstocks.

Although JetBlue is already a regular user of SAF, it accounts for less than 1% of the airline’s total fuel usage. “We need significantly more supply to reach our 2040 net zero target,” said Sara Bogdan, JetBlue’s Director of Sustainability and ESG. “With partners like Fidelis and their carbon negative Gron Fuels Gigasystem, we are not only supplying our own growing SAF needs, we’re sending a powerful signal that significant demand for SAF exists. By introducing negative carbon intensity SAF to our network, we are also taking steps towards reaching true carbon neutrality as an airline.”

In addition to producing carbon negative SAF, Fidelis Co-founder and COO Bengt Jarlsjo said his company’s high-capacity carbon sink was expected to permanently sequester some 5 million tons of biogenic CO2 per year from the Louisiana facility.

JetBlue has also had a science-based, Paris-aligned climate target to reduce jet fuel emissions approved by the SBTi. The airline commits to reducing well-to-wake scope 1 and 3 GHG emissions by 50% per revenue tonne kilometre (RTK) by 2035 from a 2019 base year, with a goal of reaching net zero carbon emissions by 2040, 10 years ahead of the sector’s target. The airline said SAF is expected to be the key contributor to large-scale lifecycle emissions reduction, although it is highly dependent on availability and costs of supply.

Virgin Atlantic Airways has announced a 70 million gallon commitment to SAF with its 49% shareholder Delta Air Lines, and to be produced by Gevo. The fuel will be supplied by Delta to Virgin Atlantic at a rate of 10 million US gallons per year over seven years at either Los Angeles or San Francisco airports. It will represent 20% of Virgin Atlantic’s commitment to 10% SAF use by 2030 and equate to around 500 trans-Atlantic flights from Los Angeles.

The parties have not disclosed a start date for deliveries of SAF, which will come from one of Gevo’s future production facilities. Gevo separates sugars and proteins from sustainably farmed non-edible industrial corn, with the sugars then used to produce SAF and the proteins fed to livestock, whose manure can then be processed to develop renewable natural gas and agricultural fertiliser.

“We know that SAF has a fundamental role to play in aviation decarbonisation,” said Holly Boyd Boland, VP Corporate Development at Virgin Atlantic. “The demand from airlines is clear and Virgin Atlantic is committed to supporting the scale up of SAF production at pace. We cannot meet our collective ambition of Net Zero 2050 without it.”

In March this year, Delta signed an agreement with Gevo valued at around $2.8 billion to purchase 75 million gallons per year over seven years, subject to Gevo developing, financing and constructing one or more production facilities to fulfil the quantity.

Image: Air France-KLM

Two of Europe’s largest airline groups, Lufthansa and Ryanair, have committed to acquiring a total of almost 1 million tonnes of sustainable aviation fuel from Vienna-based global energy company OMV in two newly-announced offtake deals. Lufthansa Group has signed a Memorandum of Understanding to acquire more than 800,000 tonnes of the fuel from OMV between 2023 and 2030, significantly building upon an agreement earlier this year to supply SAF to Lufthansa subsidiary Austrian Airlines at Vienna Airport. Low-cost carrier Ryanair has also signed an MoU to take up to 160,000 tonnes of OMV’s product over the next eight years as part of a pledge that by 2030, 12.5% of its jet fuel will be SAF. Under this deal, OMV will supply SAF to Ryanair in Austria, Germany and Romania, markets in which the airline collectively serves 17 airports.

Lufthansa Group and Ryanair are both blue chip aviation clients for OMV, which has group annual revenues of €36 billion ($36bn) and is transitioning from an integrated oil, gas and chemicals company to a become a major provider of products including sustainable fuels. It currently produces SAF by co-processing sustainable and regional raw materials, particularly used cooking oil, and plans to scale up its annual SAF production to 700,000 tonnes in 2030.

Both airline companies have already announced significant SAF deals with other companies and are keen not only to boost their own supplies, but also the volume of industry demand to help increase general production and drive down the costs of the fuel.

A long-term advocate of SAF, Lufthansa Group is comprised a range of prominent European airline brands, including Lufthansa German Airlines, Lufthansa Cityline, SWISS, Austrian Airlines, Brussels Airlines, Eurowings Discover, Air Dolomiti and Edelweiss, though whether all would have access to the OMV SAF was not disclosed. Announcing its new SAF deal, Lufthansa said it had set ambitious climate protection goals and was exploring a range of alternative fuels on its path to achieve net zero emissions by 2050. The expanded partnership with OMV includes the establishment of new locations for SAF production and delivery, and development of new SAF production technologies.

“The Lufthansa Group is continuously reviewing options for long-term purchase agreements and is already the largest SAF customer in Europe,” the company said. “By 2030, the aviation group wants to halve its net CO2 emissions compared to 2019. Special focus is placed on the forward-looking power-to-liquid and sun-to-liquid technologies, which use renewable energies or solar thermal energy as carriers.”

In addition to increased use of SAF, Lufthansa Group’s emissions reduction strategy also includes fleet renewal, optimised flight operations and offers to customers to help make passenger or cargo flights carbon neutral, a package of actions which was validated by the Science Based Targets Initiative in August 2022. “This makes the Lufthansa Group the first aviation group in Europe with a scientifically-based CO2 reduction target in line with the goals of the Paris Climate Agreement of 2015,” the company said.

The Ryanair deal, which enables the carrier to purchase up to 160,000 tonnes of SAF from OMV by 2030, will save an estimated 400,000 tonnes of CO2 emissions over the life of the contract, equivalent to around 25,000 Ryanair Boeing 737 flights from Dublin, the airline’s home, to Vienna, it says.

“SAF plays a key role in our Pathway to Net Zero decarbonisation strategy in which we have committed to increasing our use of SAF over the coming years – a commitment that this deal with OMV will help move further forward,” said Thomas Fowler, Ryanair’s Director of Sustainability. “OMV is a key partner for Ryanair in Austria, Germany and Romania, and we look forward to growing this partnership as Europe’s largest airline group.”

The airline has pledged that by 2030, 12.5% of the jet fuel it uses will be SAF, an initiative which parallels a $22 billion investment in new Boeing 737 MAX aircraft, which produce 16% lower emissions than the airline’s current technology fleet. Ryanair has also partnered with Trinity College in Dublin to establish the Sustainable Aviation Research Centre, which will determine the sustainability of SAF by analysing the lifecycle greenhouse gases emitted in production, develop ‘pre-screening tools’ to accelerate the certification of new SAF variants, and assess the feasibility of zero-carbon aircraft propulsion systems. 

Nina Marczell, OMV’s VP Aviation, Fuels Distributors and Public Sector, said the MoU with Ryanair presented a great opportunity for both companies to progress their sustainability plans. “We are committed to reducing our own carbon footprint as well as supporting our customers in reducing theirs,” she said. “Sustainable aviation fuel significantly reduces CO2 emissions and we are delighted to collaborate with a strong partner like Ryanair, and to provide solutions for the sustainable development of the aviation industry.”  

Photo: OMV (andreasjakwerth.com)

European low-cost carrier Ryanair and Hong Kong’s Cathay Pacific have announced new commitments to sustainable aviation fuel produced by the Finnish waste-to-fuel provider Neste. Ryanair has announced it will operate about one third of its flights from Amsterdam’s Schiphol Airport with a 40% blend of SAF, as part of its commitment to 12.5% SAF use across its operations by 2030, while Cathay Pacific has launched a pilot programme through which its corporate customers can contribute to the purchase of SAF to help offset the emissions of their business travel or air freight shipments. Both deals coincide with a 15-fold increase in SAF production by Neste, from 100,000 tonnes per year at the end of 2021 to 1.5 million tonnes per year by early 2023, through expansion of its Singapore and Rotterdam refineries, reports Tony Harrington.

“SAF is a cornerstone of our ‘Pathway to Net Zero by 2050’ decarbonisation strategy,” said Thomas Fowler, Director of Sustainability at Ryanair. “This new blend will power a third of Ryanair flights at Amsterdam Airport Schiphol while reducing greenhouse gas emissions by over 60%.” Based on the latest flight listing by Schiphol Airport, which shows 66 Ryanair departures per week to Dublin and Malaga, the airline’s SAF partnership with Neste Holland initially will support 22 Boeing 737 flights per week from Amsterdam, though the timeframe for implementation and details of SAF flights have not been announced.

Aviation data group OAG has just ranked Ryanair the world’s fifth largest airline by flight frequency, trailing only American, Delta, United and Southwest. To help achieve its 2050 emission reduction targets, Ryanair expects SAF to account for 34% of its decarbonisation. Technological and operational improvements will deliver another 32%, offsetting and “other economic measures” 24%, and, subject to a successful implementation of the European Union’s Single European Sky proposal, reform of air traffic management will deliver a further 10% cut in the airline’s emissions.

A key element of Ryanair’s decarbonisation programme is fleet renewal, through the introduction of up to 210 Boeing 737-8200 MAX twinjets, 65 of which are expected to be in service by the start of the northern hemisphere summer. These aircraft offer 4% more seats than the airline’s current fleet of 737-800 jets, but burn 16% less fuel, and are central to another Ryanair target, a 10% reduction in CO2 emissions per passenger kilometre, from the current 66 grams to 60 grams by 2030. As well, the airline recently partnered with Dublin’s Trinity College to establish the Ryanair Sustainable Aviation Research Centre to study initiatives including SAF and zero-carbon aircraft propulsion systems.

Cathay Pacific, an early adopter of sustainable aviation fuels, has also intensified its commitment to SAF, launching a pilot Corporate Sustainable Aviation Fuel Programme through which commercial customers can offset the emissions of business travel by their employees or the movement of freight by air by contributing to the use of SAF on Cathay passenger and cargo flights from Hong Kong International Airport. In what the airline calls “the first major programme of its kind in Asia”, Cathay has announced participation of an initial eight customers – AIA, Airport Authority Hong Kong, DHL Global Forwarding, HSBC, Kintetsu World Express, PwC China, Standard Chartered and Swire Pacific. The SAF for the Cathay programme will be provided by PetroChina and Shell, and produced by Neste from used cooking oil and animal fat waste.

In 2014, Cathay was the first airline to invest in US-based Fulcrum BioEnergy, a pioneer in the development and commercialisation of SAF produced from municipal solid waste, from which it has committed to acquire 1.1 million tonnes (3.1 billion litres) of SAF over 10 years, commencing in 2024, equivalent to 2% of its total fuel requirements in 2019. The airline also pledged last year to a target of 10% SAF use across its operations by 2030 and was one of nine members of the oneworld airline alliance to commit last November to the collective purchase of 350 million gallons (1.3 billion litres) of SAF at San Francisco International Airport over a seven-year term, beginning in 2024. That fuel will be developed by US-based producer Aemetis Carbon Zero from waste wood converted to cellulosic hydrogen, then combined with waste materials, non-edible sustainable oils and zero carbon intensity electricity.

“We continue to pioneer our industry’s move towards more substantial use of SAF, especially in Asia,” said Augustus Tang, Cathay Pacific’s Chief Executive Officer. “Last year we were among the first carriers in the world to announce a target of 10% SAF for our total fuel use by 2030. We have made significant progress since then and are pleased that uplifting SAF from Hong Kong International Airport is now a reality with the strong support of the local authorities and fuel suppliers. We see the launch of this Corporate SAF Programme as an important step for us to engage other like-minded organisations, and a first step in sending an important demand signal to the SAF supply chain that there is firm interest in the region, not only from airlines, but also the aviation value chain, all the way to end users for both passenger and cargo transportation.”

Photo: Ryanair’s Head of Sustainability, Steven Fitzgerald, and Neste’s VP Europe, Renewable Aviation, Jonathan Wood at Amsterdam Schiphol Airport

Ryanair and its university partner Trinity College Dublin are beginning what will be 12-24 months of work to establish a roadmap for Europe’s largest low-cost carrier to achieve a newly announced commitment to power 12.5% of its flights with sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) by 2030, the airline’s Director of Sustainability, Thomas Fowler, tells Mark Pilling. Ryanair made the commitment while unveiling the launch of the Ryanair Sustainable Aviation Research Centre in a “landmark initiative – the first of its kind in Ireland”, with a €1.5 million ($1.8 million) donation which Trinity will use to seed a team to research SAF, zero carbon aircraft propulsion systems and noise mapping.

“This new knowledge will inform the policies of both EU and international governments on making aviation environmentally and economically sustainable, as well as harness future investments by the aviation industry towards sustainability,” said Ryanair. The project, which will employ six people, is due to begin in summer 2021.

“Given the Ryanair brand and our size in Europe, we wanted to give a commitment to do something that would make the industry stand up and take note of,” said Fowler. “It’s a demand signal.”

Ryanair has already been using SAF on a regular basis in Norway, where since 2020 there is a requirement for 0.5% of all fuel usage to be SAF. The carrier has been discussing SAF with major fuel suppliers for a couple of years and will most likely start offtaking SAF under any European blending rules as and when they come in, said Fowler. Ryanair will carefully consider its SAF offtake strategy as it has 84 bases around Europe, with its largest markets being Spain and Italy.

While Ryanair used about one billion gallons of jet fuel in 2019, the key metric that the carrier tracks is grammes of CO2 per revenue passenger kilometre. In 2019 this number was 66g, and the target is to reduce this to 60g by 2030, said Fowler. This target was set prior to the 12.5% commitment and the carrier could well do better than this with an increased usage of SAF, he added.

Over the coming 24 months, Ryanair’s fuel efficiency will gain a major boost with the introduction of increasing numbers of new Boeing 737 Max aircraft powered by CFM International’s Leap-1B engine. “By 2025, 40% of our fleet will be 737 Maxs,” said Fowler. Ryanair has had initial discussions with Boeing and CFM about the prospects for next generation aircraft with novel propulsion technologies such as hydrogen, but this is a “longer play”, he explained. “SAF is what we are working on at the moment.”

Photo: Ryanair

Mark Pilling

GreenAir Contributing Editor

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