Finnair participates in oneworld SAF purchase agreement

Members of the oneworld Alliance plan to purchase up to 200 million gallons of sustainable aviation fuel per year from Colorado-based renewable fuels producer Gevo, in the second such joint commitment by the global airline alliance in four months.

Delivery of the fuel will commence from 2027, for a five-year term.

oneworld is the first global airline alliance to jointly commit to purchasing sustainable aviation fuel, and the new commitment is the second of its kind.

In November 2021, oneworld announced a joint commitment to purchase more than 350 million gallons of blended sustainable aviation fuel from Aemetis for operations at San Francisco, with Finnair among the parties to this commitment.

Finnair has set a long-term target to fly carbon-neutral in 2045 and SAF is an important part of the toolkit for reaching this target. In March 2022, Finnair invited its customers to offset their flight emissions with a service that combines Sustainable Aviation Fuel and trusted climate projects. Finnair has flown individual flights with SAF blend already since 2011, and intends to increase the use of SAF in its flight operations.

Eveliina Huurre, SVP Sustainability at Finnair, said: “The high price and limited availability of sustainable aviation fuels still present challenges for increasing its usage in commercial aviation, and thus stimulating demand and supply is important to drive down the price of SAF and to increase its availability – underlining the importance of joint commitments like that of oneworld member airlines.”

Gevo’s sustainable aviation fuel is produced using inedible corn products that are processed to create ethanol that is then converted into SAF. The fuel is expected to be produced at three facilities under development in the Midwestern United States.

Finnair had earlier partnered with Neste in Finland to increase the use of SAF and hence reduce carbon emissions.