British Airways targets sustainable future with 10% SAF by 2030
British Airways is leading the industry in pursuit of sustainable aviation fuel with plans to increase the supply to 10% by 2030, said Carrie Harris, the airline’s director of sustainability,…
British Airways is leading the industry in pursuit of sustainable aviation fuel with plans to increase the supply to 10% by 2030, said Carrie Harris, the airline’s director of sustainability, at the Sustainable Skies World Summit.
Speaking to FINN, she said: “This year is 30 years since we first published our carbon footprint. And since then we’re really proud of the leadership that we have shown in helping bring sustainability front and centre of our industry.
“We were the first airline is part of IAG back in 2019 to commit to net zero – and prior to that we’ve been advocating for sustainable aviation fuel and global carbon pricing for over a decade. So it’s been a long time coming but it’s really exciting to see the momentum building now.”
SAF coming through the pipeline
She added: “It’s super exciting – sustainable aviation fuel is a drop-in solution that’s available now. But at the moment only about 1% of aviation’s demand for sustainable fuel is available globally. And that’s true for us as well in the UK. But last year, we took our first supply of sustainable aviation fuel, coming from the Phillips 66 plant in Humberside.
“So now we actually have a small amount of sustainable fuel coming through the pipeline into our operations at Heathrow, so that each of our flights leaving Heathrow has a tiny amount of sustainable fuel, and our target is to get that up to 10% by 2030.”
Manufacturing process
As an airline, British Airways have also got involved with the SAF manufacturing process.
Harris explained: “We’ve announced our investment and partnership in five different sustainable fuel plants, some in the UK and some in the US.
“We’re using a lot of different types of feed sources and this is the beauty of sustainable aviation fuel, you can take multiple different types of wastes, they are always waste products and they are always certified sustainable independently, but we have included household waste, forestry and wood waste, like our Nova Pangaea plant in the Northeast of England, and with LanzaJet, we’re using alcohol to jet fuel from ethanol in the US and that plant will be coming on stream later this year.
“So a range of different feedstocks and a range of technology types, but all of that is able to produce sustainable fuel and it can drop into our aircraft that are flying now.
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