'We’re pulling every lever available to us': Air NZ splashes out on green fuel, but admits there's still a long way to go

Wednesday, 18 December 2024

The sustainable aviation fuel will be used on flights across the Pacific from San Francisco and Los Angeles.

Air New Zealand purchases 30 million litres of sustainable aviation fuel.

The sustainable fuel will be used on flights from San Francisco and Los Angeles.

Air New Zealand aims to use 10% sustainable aviation fuel by 2030.

Air New Zealand has made its biggest ever purchase of sustainable aviation fuel (SAF), buying 30 million litres.

It will be used on flights across the Pacific from San Francisco and Los Angeles.

SAF is made from raw materials such as animal fat waste and used cooking oil and is mixed with conventional jet fuel to create the overall fuel mix that powers an aircraft.

A Virgin Atlantic flight using 100% sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) has taken off from London's Heathrow Airport bound for New York. The flight is the first of its kind across the Atlantic and th...

However, SAF will only make up 1.6% of the airline’s total fuel supply and Air New Zealand's chief sustainability officer, Kiri Hannifin, admits more needs to be done.

“1.6% is still a very small proportion of our total fuel use, but it’s four times more than we carried last year, so I am thrilled with the trajectory,” said Hannifin.

“Like all airlines, we urgently need to move away from our high reliance on fossil fuels as quickly as we can. Securing year-on-year higher volumes of SAF is critical.”

The national carrier hopes to be using 10% SAF by 2030.

“We’ve invested in two feasibility studies to understand if New Zealand production from feedstocks like woody biomass could become a reality and we are delighted that it can be.

“We’re pulling every lever available to us because sitting on our hands is not an option. The climate crisis is worsening, and we are responsible for changing the course of action to protect our natural environment for future generations”.

Earlier this year, Air New Zealand announced it had to abandon its carbon intensity reduction target for 2030.

The national carrier said it would both drop the target and withdraw from the Science Based Targets Initiative (SBTi), a partnership between carbon disclosure charity CDP, the United Nations Global Compact, the World Resources Institute, and the World Wide Fund for Nature.

The airline had planned to reduce absolute carbon emissions by 16.3% by 2030, from a 2019 baseline. That would have equated to a reduction in carbon intensity of 28.9%. Air NZ chief executive Greg Foran said issues with the production of new aircraft and the availability and affordability of more sustainable jet fuels were to blame.

Air NZ chair Dame Therese Walsh said the airline remains committed to reaching its 2050 net zero carbon emissions target.