The International Air transport Association (IATA) has unveiled plans to fly one billion passengers on flights powered by a combination of jet fuel and sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) by 2025.
The plan is inspired by the airline industry’s commitment to achieve carbon-neutral growth from 2020 and reduce net carbon emissions by 50% compared with 2005.
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In order to achieve this objective, SAF should be allowed to compete with automotive biofuels through equivalent or increased incentives.
According to IATA, respective governments can offer loan guarantees and capital grants for SAF production facilities, as well as patronise SAF demonstration plants and supply chain research and development.
Governments can also create harmonised transport and energy policies, in coordination with the agriculture and military departments, in order to help achieve the new IATA goal.
IATA director general and CEO Alexandre Juniac said: “The momentum for sustainable aviation fuels is now unstoppable. From one flight in 2008, we passed the threshold of 100,000 flights in 2017, and we expect to hit one million flights during 2020.
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By GlobalData“But that is still just a drop in the ocean compared to what we want to achieve. We want one billion passengers to have flown on a SAF-blend flight by 2025.
“We need governments to set a framework to incentivise production of SAF and ensure it is as attractive to produce as automotive biofuels.”
A flight fully powered by sustainable fuel is expected to cut carbon emissions by up to 80%.
The first SAF-powered flight was conducted in February 2008 by Virgin Atlantic using a Boeing 747 aircraft from London, UK, to Amsterdam, the Netherlands.
Various airlines such as Cathay Pacific, FedEx Express, JetBlue, Lufthansa, Qantas, and United have also made investments by forward-purchasing 1.5 billion gallons of SAF.
