The Airbus Guide to Sustainable Aviation Fuel
Few industries capture the imagination like aviation. The freedom to fly has revolutionised economies, connected cultures and made the world smaller.
But as the climate crisis intensifies, aviation's environmental impact is under the microscope. With around 2-3% of global CO₂ emissions attributed to air travel – and demand for flights projected to soar – decarbonising aviation is one of the 21st century’s great sustainability challenges.
At the heart of this revolution is Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF), a technology offering hope, complexity and innovation in equal measure.
Airbus, as one of the world’s leading aerospace manufacturers, is at the forefront of this transition.
“Climate risk is a humanitarian risk, but it's also a business and a financial risk,” says Julie Kitcher, Chief Sustainability Officer at Airbus.
“At Airbus we remain committed to sustainability. No, we don't have all the answers and yes, it's hard, but we do have a collective goal to reach net zero for the industry.”
Despite the challenges, Airbus remains committed to its mission – to pioneer sustainable aerospace for a safe and united world.
“We are in the fourth revolution of aviation,” says Guillaume Faury, CEO of Airbus.
“The first one was more than a century ago with the beginning of flight in 1905. It used to be a very dangerous game – the average lifetime of a plane and the pilot was very short.
“The second revolution was to make aviation a safe mode of transport. It took a lot of time, a lot of effort and a lot of failures.
“The third transformation was to make it available for everyone, to make it affordable so that it became a viable method of transport.
“We are now in the fourth revolution of aviation – making it sustainable.”
“What is really exciting and what makes me passionate is that we have a purpose statement that says we pioneer sustainable aerospace for a safe and united world,” says Julien Manhes, Head of Sustainable Aviation Fuels and Carbon Dioxide Removal at Airbus.
“We are the lucky ones who can pioneer every day.”
A brief history of aviation and aviation fuel
Since the Wright brothers’ first powered flight in 1903, aviation has been synonymous with progress.
For decades, kerosene-based jet fuel – derived from fossil sources – has been the industry standard, prized for its energy density and reliability. But extracting and burning fossil fuels releases carbon that has been locked underground for millennia, adding to atmospheric CO₂ and driving global warming.
The aviation sector’s reliance on fossil fuels has made it a hard-to-abate industry. Unlike cars or trains, where electrification is advancing rapidly, the energy requirements of flight make battery-powered planes viable only for short journeys.
For long-haul flights, liquid fuels remain essential – for now.
“Electricity generated by wind turbines dates back to the 19th century,” Julie explains.
“But wind power only really took off in the 1970s in the face of an energy crisis, and last year 30% of the electricity generated in the UK was generated by wind.
“That shows that we don't have to look too far in the face of crisis to see how transformation can come through innovation and technology. We need to start and we need to continue.
“This decade has shown us that every year brings a new crisis. We are living in a world of uncertainty and at Airbus, our conviction remains.
“We are pioneering sustainable aerospace for a safe and united world.”
What is SAF?
Sustainable Aviation Fuel, or SAF, is a broad term for non-fossil-derived fuels that can be blended with, or replace, conventional jet fuel. Most SAF today is produced from biomass, such as used cooking oil, agricultural residues or even municipal waste.
“In order to make SAF, it all starts with a CO₂ absorption,” explains Julien. “The biomass, when it grows, absorbs CO₂. Then you process that biomass into your biofuel. And when you burn the fuel, the CO₂ is released again. So you’re working effectively in a closed loop where you’re using CO₂ that is already in the atmosphere.”
This is fundamentally different from fossil fuels, which Julien says “pull carbon from the soil and release it back into the atmosphere, where it stays for centuries”.
SAF, when produced and sourced responsibly, can reduce lifecycle greenhouse gas emissions by up to 80% compared to conventional jet fuel.
The development of SAF
SAF’s journey from concept to commercialisation has been long and complex.
“What we did together with the industry is to make sure that we could make this synthetic fuel flyable,” says Julien.
“We spent quite a lot of time making sure that the different recipes of SAF could be used on our platforms – not only commercial aircraft, but also military aircraft and helicopters.”
Today, technical standards exist to ensure that SAF blends meet the stringent safety and performance requirements of aviation.
“Now there are technical standards that SAF producers can refer to, to ensure that what they produce, when it’s mixed with kerosene, is fulfilling the technical standards required to fly safely,” Julien explains.
About Airbus
Airbus is more than just an aircraft manufacturer. With a global workforce and a history of innovation, it has taken a proactive role in the SAF ecosystem.
“We have a lot of partnerships with a lot of different producers simply because we want to support the emergence of SAF at scale,” says Julien. These partnerships span established energy giants like TotalEnergies and Neste, as well as agile startups pioneering new feedstocks and production methods.
Airbus’s approach is holistic, supporting the supply and demand sides of the SAF equation.
“We provide financing so that SAF producers can start their production facility,” Julien explains. “For those smaller producers, it’s really hard to find cheap financing to make their project work.”
The challenges of decarbonising aviation
Technical barriers
While SAF is “drop-in” – meaning it can be used in existing aircraft and infrastructure – there are still technical hurdles. Not all feedstocks are created equal and scaling up production to meet global demand is a massive challenge.
Economic realities
The biggest challenge, however, is economic. “There is one single major issue, and I say major, but it’s the money,” says Julien. “The problem with those fuels is that they’re very expensive to manufacture and therefore the price at which they’re being sold is two to three times the price of conventional fuel.”
Policy and regulation
Policy frameworks are crucial. “A policy will enable a new industry to emerge,” Julien believes. But definitions of what constitutes “sustainable” can vary. For example, the EU restricts certain feedstocks, such as crop-based biofuels, while the US is more permissive. “We don’t want every country to have a different definition about what is sustainable aviation,” he warns.
Supply and demand
The classic ‘chicken and egg’ dilemma looms large – airlines want to buy SAF, but producers need assurance of demand before investing in new facilities. “You can activate demand by saying, okay, I force the fuel distributors to incorporate a certain percentage, a certain level of blend in the overall fuel mix.”
Innovations in SAF and aviation decarbonisation
Airbus is investing in a wide range of SAF innovations.
“We partner on all fronts with all types of producers and we really think that we can bring, with a lot of humility, a little contribution to all those partners,” says Julien.
This includes supporting startups working on novel feedstocks such as waste, sewage and even alcohol-to-jet technologies.
Beyond SAF, Airbus is exploring hydrogen-powered flight and advanced aircraft designs. But for the foreseeable future, SAF is considered by many as the most viable way to decarbonise long-haul aviation.
The role of collaboration
The scale of the challenge demands collaboration.
“We are seeking partnerships and collaboration across the entire value chain,” Julien says.
“We are also sponsoring some studies, for example, of different crops that could be used as a feedstock for SAF. We are discovering a new world like pioneers do – a world of collaboration and a wealth of failure, because sometimes we realise that what we are doing doesn’t work. That’s very much the beauty of innovating and allowing ourselves to fail from time to time.”
The role of the consumer
While airlines and manufacturers are central to the SAF transition, passengers and corporate customers also have a part to play.
“When you buy your ticket, have a look as to whether the airline is proposing to you having a little bit of SAF in your ticket,” suggests Julien. “You’re no longer buying only the experience of travelling from A to B. You are buying this experience plus a reduced carbon footprint.”
Corporate customers, in particular, are leading the way by purchasing SAF credits to offset their business travel emissions.
“When I fly on business travel with Air France, we buy from Air France 100% CO₂ reduction out of SAF. We buy SAF from Air France, or the CO₂ reduction attributes of the SAF that Air France procures. In return we get certificates that we can claim for.”
Book and claim mechanisms: Making SAF more accessible
One of Airbus’s proudest recent achievements is the development of a ‘book and claim’ mechanism for smaller customers. This system allows customers to claim the environmental benefits of SAF, even if the physical fuel is not used on their specific flight.
“The book and claim mechanism is correlating the attributes of SAF or the environmental attributes of SAF from the physical product. It is a great enabler for SAF to take off,” Julien says. “For us, this demonstrator is really the opportunity to show that it’s robust whilst at the same time helping our customers to decarbonise.”
Policy, innovation and hope
Looking to the future, Julien is cautiously optimistic.
“My wish for the UK and Europe is to continue implementing their regulation while developing more support mechanisms for the local airlines. The threat that we see is that if the regulations in Europe and the UK are not fairly designed, it may have a negative impact on their competitiveness.”
He also hopes to see major economies like India and China embrace SAF, which will send a positive signal towards the rest of the industry.
And, crucially, he wants to see evidence of voluntary demand.
“There is demand from passengers and a little bit of willingness to pay a little bit more to fly with a lower carbon footprint,” he says.
“To me, that would give me a lot of hope for our success going forward and for our ability to achieve net zero in 2050.”
Revolutionising aviation
The transition to SAF is a revolution for the air transport industry – one that will require technical ingenuity, policy innovation and global collaboration.
“The energy challenge of human mankind in that transition is huge,” Julien reflects. “We don’t want to look at it only from the perspective of aviation. It is much bigger than us, much bigger.”
Yet, as Airbus and its partners demonstrate, the journey is well under way. The pioneers of sustainable flight are not only changing how we fly, but also how we think about our place in a rapidly warming world.
The sky, it seems, is no longer the limit – it’s the proving ground for a more sustainable future.
To read the full article in the magazine, click HERE.
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