SAF

In the UK, Jet2.com to use SAF on flights from Bristol Airport in 2024. The airline has purchased over 300 tonnes of SAF from Q8Aviation, which will be used to add a 1% SAF blend onto a number of departing flights from Bristol Airport this year.  Elsewhere in Europe, Sasol and Topsoe announced the successful launch of their joint venture, Zaffra. With its headquarters based in Amsterdam, The Netherlands, Zaffra is set to become a key player in the aviation industry, focusing on the development and delivery of SAF. Wizz Air announced a £5 million investment in a biofuel company, Firefly. Following Ryanair’s purchase of 500 tonnes of sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) from OMV last October, the airline has announced that it will take an additional 500 tonnes of SAF from OMV in 2024. Ryanair also announced that it has purchased 1,000 tonnes of SAF from Shell, which will be supplied to the airline at its Stansted Airport base.

Still in Europe, Emirates has commenced the activation of its fuel agreement with Neste in March at Amsterdam Schiphol Airport. Over 2 million gallons of blended SAF will be supplied into the fuelling system at Schiphol Airport over the course of 2024. AEGEAN expanded its SAF uplift program in Stockholm Arlanda and London Heathrow Airport through an agreement with Shell. Air France announced it would match its customers’ voluntary contributions to the purchase of SAF during the Paris 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Games. Neste launched its Neste Impact solution for businesses to reduce their aviation emissions with SAF. Virgin Atlantic shared results from Flight100, the first transatlantic flight on 100% SAF. A full lifecycle analysis – showing a saving of 95 tonnes of CO2, or 64% of the emissions produced from a standard flight from London Heathrow to New York JFK.

In Australia, LanzaJet & Jet Zero Australia signed an agreement to advance Australia’s first ethanol to SAF plant. Project Ulysses aims to produce 102 million liters of SAF and 11 million liters of renewable diesel every year and is supported by Qantas, Airbus and Japanese energy conglomerate Idemitsu. Jet Zero Australia and Trovio have partnered to establish the Australian framework for a ‘Book and Claim’ registry for SAF and renewable diesel. Air New Zealand is seeking innovators in global search for SAF, launching the first global open invitation to innovators and start-ups in the SAF sector to become a supply partner to the airline. Air New Zealand also inked its largest deal for SAF, having signed an agreement for nine million liters of neat SAF with Neste, produced at Neste’s Singapore refinery and supplied at LAX. Cathay set new 2030 carbon intensity target in support of its 2050 net-zero goal, setting a new target to improve its carbon intensity by 12% from the 2019 level by 2030. TotalEnergies and SINOPEC have signed an agreement to jointly develop a SAF production unit at a SINOPEC’s refinery in China, with a capacity of 230,000 tonnes of SAF per year, mostly HEFA. Topsoe has signed an agreement with Guangxi Hongkun Biomass to provide technology to produce SAF at the company’s plant in Guangxi, China. Singapore Airlines Group ordered 1,000 tonnes of SAF from Neste to be used by SIA and Scoot at Changi Airport. In South Korea, S-Oil will be able to produce SAF for international aviation for the first time in Korea, after the refiner acquired three green certifications on sustainable and low-carbon products.

In Canada, WestJet acquired Shell Aviation’s first SAF available for purchase in the country. ABB and Cap Clean Energy signed an agreement to collaborate on SAF production sites in the Canadian provinces of Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Alberta. Once operational, the facilities will produce ultra-low carbon SAF from non-combustion conversion of cereal crop by-product feedstocks that do not compete with food. The sites will also incorporate carbon capture and storage (CCS) technology to reduce CO₂ emissions. In the US, Southwest Airlines announced the acquisition of SAFFiRE Renewables. This acquisition marks Southwest’s transition from investor to sole owner of SAFFiRE. Aemetis announced receipt of the Authority to Construct (ATC) air permits for its planned SAF and renewable diesel (RD) production plant in Riverbank, California. The plant is designed to produce 90 million gallons per year when allocating 50% to SAF and 50% to renewable diesel production, and 78 million gallons per year when allocating 100% of production to SAF for the aviation market. Boston Consulting Group (BCG) announced it has signed an agreement for the purchase of SAF certificates (SAFc) with World Energy. Avfuel Corporation and Neste finalized a partnership extension to keep supplying SAF till at least December 2027. Boeing made its largest purchase of blended SAF, buying 9.4 million gallons (35.6 million liters) of blended SAF to support its 2024 U.S. commercial operations, reducing its carbon emissions and working to help grow the supply of the fuel globally. This is the company’s largest annual SAF purchase, more than 60% higher than its buy in 2023. The SAF Coalition was announced, comprising 40 companies and organizations that hold a stake in the development and deployment of SAF: airlines and aircraft operators, agricultural enterprises, aircraft and aircraft equipment manufacturers, airports, technology developers, labor unions and biofuel producers.

Chile aims to start producing SAF in a large plant by 2030 and use the fuel made for half of its aviation needs by 2050, according to the public-private “Vuelo LImpio” project that aims to decarbonize the country’s airline industry.

Hydrogen

The Japanese Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry announced it plans to invest 4 trillion yen ($26.46 billion) in a public-private partnership to develop a next-generation hydrogen-powered passenger jet.

In Europe, Finavia joined Hydrogen Cluster Finland and is preparing for hydrogen use and the necessary infrastructure at the airport. The Hydrogen in Aviation alliance (HIA), formed of easyJet, Rolls-Royce, Airbus, Ørsted, GKN Aerospace, Bristol Airport and ZeroAvia, has released its Milestone Delivery Report – outlining the steps and timeline the UK Government and the industry need to follow to lead in hydrogen-powered aviation. Still in the UK, Cranfield University will spearhead the research and development of the first major hydrogen technology hub to demonstrate the potential of hydrogen as a net zero aviation fuel. The £69 million investment creating the Cranfield Hydrogen Integration Incubator (CH2i) is the largest financial injection for research that Cranfield University has ever secured. A ground-breaking airside hydrogen refuelling trial, led by easyJet and supported by Cranfield University and cross-industry partners, has been successfully completed at Bristol Airport – the first airport trial of its kind at a major UK airport.

Electricity

In France, VoltAero initiated certification testing for the electric-hybrid powertrain to equip its Cassio 330 aircraft.

Joby Aviation, a company developing all-electric aircraft for commercial passenger service, announced it signed a multilateral MoU with Abu Dhabi to establish an electric air taxi ecosystem.

CO2 Emissions

Guyana became the first country to issue CORSIA eligible carbon units for the 2024-2026 compliance period. Under the ICAO Council approved Architecture for REDD+ Transactions (ART) programme, 4.64 million CORSIA-eligible units have been issued and authorized by Guyana, now accessible to aircraft operators.

Malaysia Airlines launched its corporate carbon program, designed to empower corporate customers, focusing on business travelers, by providing a comprehensive platform to understand and offset the carbon emissions associated with their travel.

WestJet achieved significant reductions in aircraft emissions, and reported an 11% reduction in its fuel emissions intensity in 2023, compared to 2019. The lower aircraft emissions intensity can be attributed to fleet modernization and a responsible shift in network planning.

IATA and the Smart Freight Centre (SFC) announced a partnership to provide consistent and transparent CO2 emissions calculations for air cargo shipments. This is an important step for the global air transport sector to advance its decarbonization efforts. The two organizations will focus efforts on developing the cargo component of IATA’s CO2 Connect offering, which successfully launched its passenger version in 2022.

Carbon Capture

SWISS and the Lufthansa Group have signed a strategic partnership with the Swiss-based Climeworks company. The partners intend to work together to promote the scaling up of Climeworks’s innovative technology for removing CO2 from the air via direct air capture or DAC.

Airports

London Luton Airport (LLA) and waste management company, Cawleys, have won the Green World Environment Award for Environmental Best Practice. The award was presented in recognition of an innovative partnership that has helped the airport to increase its recycling rate from 49% to 80%. Heathrow launched The Heathrow Fly Up, been created in partnership with chef Heston Blumenthal to create awareness of SAF with travelers. Birmingham Airport (BHX) has installed a Mobile Segregation Unit (MSU) at the airport. The unit, which enables the separating, washing, compacting, baling, weighing, and electronic tagging of waste, through highly efficient sortation and segregation processes, will allow BHX to achieve higher recycling rates. The MSU also reduces contamination of recyclable materials, and since being installed, has prevented 264 tonnes of waste from becoming non-recyclable general waste. British Airways is embarking on a multi-million-pound investment program to overhaul its ground support equipment at Heathrow Airport. The airline will gradually be replacing its ground vehicles at Heathrow, moving towards hybrid or electric alternatives where available. Bristol Airport has entered into a 10-year virtual Corporate Power Purchase Agreement (CPPA) with leading renewable energy developer, Luminous Energy. The arrangement provides price certainty for Bristol Airport in relation to a significant proportion of its energy needs alongside Renewable Energy Guarantee of Origin (REGO) certificates confirming the resulting generation of clean energy.

In Sweden, SEK 40 million were set aside in 2024 for Swedavia’s SAF incentive program towards climate transition in the aviation industry for the second year in a row.  In 2024, Swedavia’s investment in sustainable aviation will continue through the SAF incentive program. In Denmark, Copenhagen Airport installed a battery for storing green power. It is a milestone achieved as partners in the EU project ALIGHT have succeeded in managing the risks associated with installing a battery in an airport’s critical infrastructure. The airport is the setting for a series of experiments on storing power with the aim of storing and using green power, produced by solar and wind, in the most efficient manner. Finavia announced having achieved net zero carbon emissions at Ivalo, Kittilä, Kuusamo and Rovaniemi Airports in Finland.

Toulon Hyères is the first French airport to achieve net zero emissions in its activity scope and is one of only 10 airports worldwide to have obtained ACA level 5 in recognition of their decarbonization efforts. The airport also unveiled a roof-top solar power plant that will supply the airport with green electricity (690 MWh / year).

Sustainability

Air France-KLM, Delta Air Lines and Virgin Atlantic announced the launch of the Sustainable Airlines Initiative (SAI) in partnership with EcoVadis. The SAI will work to accelerate sustainable practices through close collaboration with trading partners to build transparency and scale positive impact across their value chains.

Cranfield University has won over £25 million to establish two new Centres for Doctoral Training (CDT) focusing on advancing water security and net zero aviation.

IATA announced the full certification of Cathay Cargo Terminal and Hong Kong Air Cargo Terminals Limited (HACTL) through the IATA Environmental Assessment (IEnvA) at the World Cargo Symposium, held in Hong Kong (SAR), China.

One year after the launch of Green Fares at the Lufthansa Group, more than one million passengers have already opted for the new fare. In the first year, an average of three per cent of passengers have used the offer, making an important contribution to more sustainable travel.

Air New Zealand has trialed the removal of single-use cups on six domestic flights to explore how the airline can deliver drinks at 30,000 feet, without the waste. The trial took place on 26 and 27 March 2024 on flights across Air New Zealand’s domestic network. The knowledge gained from customer feedback, operational logistics, and impact will help to determine the viability of implementing the initiative in the long term.

Colombia-headquartered freight carrier Avianca Cargo has stopped using conventional plastics in its pallet covers, instead turning to biodegradable plastics manufactured with a 1% load of an organic, food-safe proprietary additive that allows anaerobic bacteria to digest the plastic within a landfill site.

IATA released the?Reassessing Single Use Plastic Products in the Airline Sector report to assist airlines, regulators, and the airline supply chain to mitigate the environmental impacts of single use plastic products (SUPP) and develop, adapt and implement the solutions best suited to an aircraft’s unique environment. This report provides visibility to the challenges faced by the air transport industry when it comes to SUPP along with practical recommendations to the industry and its various stakeholders, including regulators.