The International Air Transport Association (IATA) is actively engaging stakeholders across the global value chain to accelerate the production of Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF), reported TheSun.com.
Yuli Thompson, IATA’s Southeast Asia area manager, emphasized that the drive to expand SAF production aims to achieve net-zero carbon emissions by 2050.
“Despite projected increases in SAF production, its consumption remains relatively low compared to total fuel use in aviation,” she remarked during the MyAero Sustainable Aviation Symposium 2024.
Thompson noted projections indicate SAF production could triple in 2024 to 1.9 billion liters from 2023 levels, yet this would still only constitute 0.53 percent of total aviation fuel consumption.
“To achieve meaningful impact, we need to scale production significantly, potentially a thousandfold from current levels. This is a difficult task requiring collaboration among stakeholders and supportive policy interventions,” she stressed.
Thompson highlighted that airlines, as major fuel consumers, prioritize cost-effective fuel procurement. Making SAF economically feasible and competitive with traditional aviation fuels is crucial, she emphasized.
As part of efforts to boost SAF production, Thompson mentioned IATA’s call for airlines to share anonymized data through the IATA Co2 Connect platform, facilitating information exchange across the stakeholder chain.
