SAF supply insufficient and too expensive

August 1st 2023

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Supply of Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF) is a formidable issue for the airline industry to manage, but it is not the biggest obstacle to SAF powering airlines by 2050. Read More »

“At present, SAF is 2.5 to three times more expensive than jet kero,” International Air Transport Association director general, Willie Walsh, told a recent aviation industry conference in Hong Kong. “And at times during the pandemic it increased by 60%.”

“Sustainability has the largest and longest implications for aviation and SAF is one of the most important levers for sustainability,” Walsh said. “We need to have a lot of SAF supply down the road and if it is not available to carriers at an airport, airlines could migrate to a more SAF friendly airport,” he said.

Cathay Pacific CEO, Ronald Lam, told attendees at the same Aviation Day gathering that “supply of SAF is very limited and very expensive”.

“We need support from the energy sector and from governments,” he said.

“In this part of the world, we are lagging a little behind. Now the pandemic is over sustainability will be the number one issue for the industry. We can learn from our colleagues in Europe.

“Wind and solar energy required investment. We are looking at the same situation with SAF.”

In 2022, all SAF produced was used by airlines. To achieve net zero emissions from flying by 2050, 65% of total aircraft emissions reductions will, in all probability, need to be from SAF, IATA calculates. SAF can reduce an airliner’s CO² emissions by up to 80%.

SAF production would need to be 450 billion litres by mid-decade and to be harvested from every sustainable feedstock, to feed industry demand by that date.

In the shorter term, if all options are acted upon, up to one billion air passengers will have flown on an aircraft powered by a SAF blend by 2025, IATA said.