Transport sec urges aviation sector to 'deliver outcomes' for greener flying

“We’re technology neutral, it’s about focusing on the outcome and we want to support all the new forms of technology. We’re not going to start picking one and overly focus on that. I think the clear questions today – we’re going to have to have a range of solutions in a hard to decarbonise sector if we’re going to get to net zero by 2050.”

Harper had nodded to his announcement in mid-November of a pledge to support the aviation industry with £53m in government funding for nine projects to lower its carbon operations – including the construction of five SAF manufacturing plants starting in 2025.

But when pressed by the progress the UK was making when it came to the domestic production of SAF he conceded that current availability of SAF was “difficult”. 

Speaking after the minister, Virgin Atlantic founder Sir Richard Branson and the airline’s chief executive Shai Weiss were quick to laud the airline’s position as an innovator, and highlighted the proof-of-concept role yesterday’s flight was set to achieve in playing down concerns of the viability of a 100% sustainable long-haul flight.

Branson said: “Proving something can be done is obviously the first step – and then it’s a matter of governance and setting proper rules to encourage industry.”

“Up until tonight it was thought impossible for a flight to fly on sustainable fuels across the Atlantic. We always thought long haul aviation would most likely never fly on clean fuel – but there’s still a lot of work to be done to make enough [SAF], and then to price it so it’s competitive, and then so it becomes the ‘norm’.”

Weiss stressed, as he has previously, the need to up the ante on SAF production, quoting the 0.1% proportion of fuel produced for aviation that is currently SAF.

He said that to get to the proposed government mandate of ‘10% SAF by 2030’ the industry would need to up production by 150 times its current levels.

Weiss also pointed to the premium paid by airlines for SAF – “some two, three, four times more” that of traditional fuel, but added that “there is a traditional adoption curve; early phases are expensive and as more production comes online prices will fall”.

He was clear on the need for strong legislation that would provide economic certainty for investors, and the promotion of thousands of jobs that could open up in the UK through supporting domestic SAF production, but told journalists that “governments have a role to play”.

“Airlines don’t manufacture fuel – they buy it to fly planes. To just think that airlines which buy the fuel and pay the premium also need to support the production of the fuel – I think that is a stretch.”