GreenAir’s roundup of the latest news and comment from around the world
Wizz Air completes operational SAF trial, as survey shows limited passenger awareness of SAF
31 January 2025
European low-cost carrier Wizz Air has completed an operational trial in which blended sustainable aviation fuel was used on more than 50 flights ahead of the January introduction of SAF blending mandates at EU airports under the ReFuelEU programme. The study, in partnership with Airbus, Spanish energy company Moeve and Brussels South Charleroi Airport, was designed to demonstrate not just the feasibility of incorporating the fuel into scheduled operations, but also to identify areas for future development, including better infrastructure and cost optimisation. The flights were performed by Wizz Air with Airbus A321neo jets on services between its Budapest hub and both Barcelona and Charleroi using SAF provided by Moeve, formerly known as Cepsa. On the Barcelona route, a 5% SAF blend was used, while on the Charleroi flights the proportion was 10%.
UK government backs airport expansion while pledging to meet climate obligations
30 January 2025
In a key policy announcement to kickstart economic growth in the UK, the government has backed expansion and a new runway at the UK’s international hub airport, Heathrow, and approved expansion at other airports in the country. It is due shortly to make a decision on a second main runway at the UK’s next biggest airport, Gatwick. The government said it was inviting proposals for a third runway at Heathrow and would ensure it was “delivered in line with our legal, environmental and climate obligations,” said the Chancellor, Rachel Reeves. Transport Secretary Heidi Alexander said “great strides” were being made into transitioning to greener aviation, citing the new sustainable aviation fuel mandate that became law in January. She announced investment of £63 million ($78m) over the next year for the Advanced Fuels Fund to support UK SAF production, alongside publication of the government’s response to its consultation on a revenue certainty mechanism aimed at encouraging SAF investment.
IAG makes strategic investment in UK project planning to produce SAF from recycled tyres
29 January 2025
Europe’s International Airlines Group (IAG), the parent of British Airways, Iberia, Aer Lingus, Vueling and LEVEL, has announced a strategic investment in Wastefront, a Norwegian recycling company that is planning a UK facility to transform scrapped tyres into sustainable aviation fuel and other renewable products. Waste tyres are increasingly being recycled into products including tyre-derived oil (TDO), which can be reprocessed into SAF or other renewable fuels for use in surface transport modes or industry. Construction of the first phase of the plant, located in the north-east England port city of Sunderland, is due for completion in 2026, enabling conversion of up to 10 million waste tyres per year when fully operational from 2027. IAG support for the Wastefront project will further diversify its SAF procurement strategy, as competition intensifies globally for alternative fuels.
Airline alliance SkyTeam announces sustainability awards for The Aviation Challenge
23 January 2025
The third and largest edition of SkyTeam’s The Aviation Challenge 2024 saw 327 sustainability solutions submitted across 18 categories by 24 participating airlines, including, for the first time, two airlines from outside the global airline alliance. These airlines operated a combined 33 showcase flights, which resulted in a 10% average improvement in CO2 intensity (CO2/RTK) compared to standard operations; a 20% reduction in CO2 intensity compared to the industry average; and an average decrease of 2% in total CO2 emissions per flight, despite a 9% increase in revenue tonne-kilometres. SAS received two awards for a light board pallet cargo initiative and its fuel efficiency programme. Other awards included to Garuda Indonesia’s ‘Zero Waste to Zero Emissions’ campaign and to Kenya Airways’ SAF initiative. Awards were presented at ceremony hosted by Saudia in Jeddah.
Four zero-emission aircraft and powertrains prepare for test flights in Australia and New Zealand
22 January 2025
Four prototypes of zero-emission aircraft and powertrains are being readied for test flights in Australia and New Zealand during 2025 as both markets accelerate efforts to decarbonise their aviation sectors, starting with short-distance routes. In April, Air New Zealand will start testing a battery-electric Alia CX300, built by US-based BETA Technologies, before introducing the type for regional freight flights in 2026. In Australia, Brisbane-based Stralis Aircraft will perform the first flight of its locally developed hydrogen-electric powertrain, Sydney’s AMSL Aero will fly its new Vertiia VTOL, also with hydrogen-electric power, and Melbourne-based Dovetail Electric Aviation will convert a Cessna Caravan to battery-electric propulsion. All four programmes coincide with a recent reshaping of the global market for new zero-emission aircraft and propulsion systems, with a range of projects progressing while others have restructured, rescheduled or failed.
LanzaJet selects UK site for its first overseas ethanol-to-jet production facility and partners with Sembcorp
22 January 2025
LanzaJet is to partner with Sembcorp Utilities (UK) to develop its next ethanol-to-SAF production facility at a site at Wilton International in Teesside, north-east England. Through its collaboration with British Airways, Project Speedbird will produce over 90,000 tonnes (30 million gallons) of SAF and renewable diesel annually. The fuel is expected to reduce net CO2 emissions by around 230,000 tonnes per year, equivalent to 26,000 BA UK domestic flights. The facility will utilise LanzaJet’s proprietary alcohol-to-jet technology deployed at its Freedom Pines Fuel facility in Georgia, USA, the world’s first commercial ethanol-to-SAF production plant. Project Speedbird will also establish key collaborations across the region to further bolster the local economy and support local jobs, said LanzaJet. Another partner in Project Speedbird is Nova Pangaea Technologies, based at Wilton International, which has developed process technology to transform biomass wastes and residues into second-generation ethanol and biochar.
Heathrow extends SAF incentive scheme as government set to back airport expansion
21 January 2025
Heathrow, one of the busiest international airports in the world, has increased its annual incentive for airlines to adopt the use of sustainable aviation fuel when refuelling at the airport. Now in its fourth year, the scheme will make available £86 million ($106m) to support the switch by airlines to cleaner fuels by approximately halving the current price gap with kerosene, so making SAF more commercially viable. Heathrow is targeting 3% of aviation fuel used in 2025 to be SAF, amounting to 187,000 tonnes, so saving around 500,000 tonnes of lifecycle carbon emissions from flights. As an update to its Heathrow 2.0 sustainability strategy, the airport has also published a ‘Nature Positive Plan’, which outlines a commitment “to better understand and, where possible, reduce Heathrow’s impacts on nature.” Meanwhile, reports suggest the UK government is shortly to announce supporting expansion of the airport, including a third runway, as well as approving full use of a second runway at Gatwick.
NEWS EXTRA
Hungarian multinational energy and petrochemicals company MOL Group reports that its Slovnaft refinery in Bratislava has successfully produced co-processed SAF from wastes including used cooking oil. It cooperated with the Aeronautics Faculty of the Technical University of Košice in the testing of its SAF. “The test proved that the Bratislava Refinery’s production unit used for the production of standard aviation kerosene is also suitable for producing sustainable aviation fuel,” said MOL.
Spanish energy company Moeve has signed a SAF supply contract with low-cost airline Norwegian. As part of the contract, Norwegian used Moeve SAF for flights from Las Palmas to Nordic countries, primarily Norway and Sweden, as well as Denmark, during the months of November and December 2024. Moeve produces SAF at its La Rábida Energy Park from used cooking oils. It is building a new plant with a flexible production capacity of 0.5 million tonnes of SAF and renewable diesel from 2026.
French clean fuels solutions provider Haffner Energy is to work with LanzaJet and LanzaTech to explore joint biomass-to-SAF projects covering the entire production value chain. They will look at the development of commercial plants, joint technology licences and offtake opportunities as they become available, and funding support and/or investment in specific SAF projects. The partnership will leverage LanzaTech’s and LanzaJet’s CirculAir technology and Haffner’s biomass agnostic technology.
PA Consulting (PA) has signed with Ireland-based SAF ecosystem builder and production accelerator Future Energy Global (FEG) to help compensate for carbon emissions related to PA’s business travel in 2024, which fall under its Scope 3 indirect responsibility. Under the agreement, FEG has retired a tranche of Scope 3 credits derived from airlines’ use of SAF, which falls under an airline’s Scope 1 direct responsibility, as defined under the Greenhouse Gas Protocol.
Topsoe is to provide its HydroFlex technology for a second Chinese SAF project located in the Guangxi Free Trade Zone. The Chuangui New Energy Company plant reached FID in December 2024 and has begun construction, with operations expected to start in December 2026. At full capacity, the plant expects to process 300,000 tons of feedstock into SAF and renewable diesel per year, with Topsoe’s technology enabling an annual emissions avoidance of 800,000 tons of CO2e.
Calumet’s Montana Renewables (MRL) has received the first drawdown of $782 million from its $1.44 billion guaranteed loan facility with the US Department of Energy Loans Program Office. The loan is to fund the construction and expansion of MRL’s renewable fuels facility in Great Falls that will enable an increase in annual production capacity to 300 million gallons of SAF and 330 million gallons of combined SAF and renewable diesel, making it one of the world’s largest SAF producers.
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