Virgin Atlantic is urging the UK government to 'match ambition with action' by implementing its recently published SAF mandate and creating a revenue certainty scheme to encourage investment in sustainable aviation fuel production.
The airline's plea to the government came as it published the results of 'Flight 100', the landmark flight it operated between London and New York last November which was powered entirely by SAF.
Virgin says a full lifecycle analysis of the fuel used on the flight resulted in a saving of 95 tonnes of CO2 – or 64 per cent – of the emissions produced by a flight between the cities using traditional aviation fuel.
Additional benefits included a 40 per cent reduction in particulates that could contribute to a significant reduction in contrail production. Results also showed that SAF has higher energy density – up to 1 per cent – compared to fossil fuel, which can contribute to greater fuel efficiency and further emissions reductions.
The airline believes SAF is the "only viable mid-term solution to decarbonise long-haul aviation" and that it needs to be produced at scale. "UK government must now urgently match its ambition with action by investing in a revenue certainty mechanism to support the creation of a UK SAF industry," it added in the publication of its Flight 100 results.
Shai Weiss, Virgin Atlantic's chief executive officer, added: “Flight 100 was more than a year in the making, demonstrating that together we can achieve more than we can alone. Virgin Atlantic is committed to finding new solutions, leading efforts to decarbonise our industry and to share any learnings or innovations. This approach underpins Flight 100. We have demonstrated that it can be done – SAF is a safe drop-in replacement for fossil fuel and can be used with today’s infrastructure."
He continued: "We are ready to fly 100 per cent SAF, but a scale up in production of [around] 100 times from where we are today is needed to meet 10 per cent SAF by 2030. We must now see urgent action from government, oil majors and private capital to invest in the production capacity needed to deliver a thriving UK SAF industry. We’ve proven that if enough SAF is made, we will fly it."