Virgin Atlantic's groundbreaking 100% SAF flight ‘cut emissions by two-thirds’

Operational efficiencies, meanwhile, also helped reduce fuel burn. Direct routing and reduced taxi time resulted in 2.2 tonnes of jet fuel saving, or 4% of overall fuel burn.

Virgin repeated its call for more investment in the SAF industry: “SAF is the only viable mid-term solution to decarbonise long-haul aviation, it needs to be produced at scale," it said.

"The 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."

The flight followed more than a year of collaboration by a Virgin-led consortium including Boeing, Rolls-Royce, Imperial College London, University of Sheffield, ICF and the Rocky Mountain Institute. A consortium led technical "deep dive" into the findings will take place on 3 June.

‘SAF is safe, we will fly it’

Shai Weiss, the airline’s chief executive, said: “Flight 100 was more than a year in the making, demonstrating that together we can achieve more than we can alone. 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. 

“We are ready to fly 100% SAF, but a scale-up in production of around 100 times from where we are today is needed to meet 10% 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.”

TTG’s interim editor, Sarah Dennis, was one of a handful of media onboard Flight 100 last November.