Boeing and environmental non-profit Roundtable on Sustainable Biomaterials (RSB) will conduct a joint study on scaling sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) production in Southeast Asia. "Phase one of the study will evaluate whether SAF production could scale sustainably in Southeast Asia based on the availability and sustainability of feedstocks across the region," the manufacturer says. The study will also assess the sustainable feedstock policy environment, as well as the technical and economic viability of main SAF production pathways. Findings and recommendations will be published in the first quarter of 2024, it adds. While the current global SAF supply accounts for only around 0.1% of jet fuel consumption, the Asia-Pacific region can play a crucial role in SAF production with a potential of 40% of global feedstock supply, according to Boeing. Boeing and RSB have established an advisory group of key stakeholders including policymakers, companies and environmental and financial institutions to provide subject matter expertise. Additional stakeholders will be consulted as the study progresses, it adds. This project builds on the long-standing partnership between Boeing and RSB to explore SAF feedstock opportunities in different regions of the world including in Ethiopia, South Africa and Brazil.

Qantas has called on Australia to follow the lead of Europe, Japan and the UK by introducing a mandatory sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) blending mandate to help jump-start local production. "Several of the countries we fly to have already committed to blending mandates of 5 to 10 per cent by 2030, and others are well on the path to introducing one. Australia has significant advantages for SAF production and there's a great opportunity to create a new domestic industry," says Qantas's chief sustainability officer Andrew Parker. "Without the right policy settings and signals, we will see investment, projects and feedstocks move offshore to places with specific policy support." Qantas uplifts SAF-blended fuel for its flights from London and from 2025 has committed to take 20 million litres per year for flights out of California. The airline says, however, that Australia lacks a commercial-scale SAF industry, and the mandate would help to boost investment in scalable facility. The call to Canberra comes as Qantas committed to invest an additional A$110 million ($71.8 million) towards its Climate Fund, which will be focused on scaling SAF opportunities, offsets and operational efficiency. This comes on top of an earlier A$290 million co-investment with Airbus in the fund, which has so far focused on developing alcohol-to-SAF refinery in Queensland. It adds that a further 12 domestic SAF projects are under assessment, with over 50 non-disclosure agreements and memoranda of understandings signed. "We're determined to be a leader in this space and that's supported by the new commitments we've made today, as well as calling for more action industry-wide in the form of a sustainable aviation fuel mandate," says chief financial officer and chief executive-designate Vanessa Hudson. Finnish energy company Neste has said previously that mandates are necessary in Asia-Pacific to help drive investment in SAF production, which is well behind that in Europe.

Lufthansa Group has disclosed that around 200,000 passengers opted for a "Green Fares" flight in the first 100 days since its launch in mid-February. The Zurich-London route operated by Swiss saw the highest number of Green Fares bookings, followed by Hamburg-Munich by Lufthansa, the Germany-based airline group says. Green Fares tickets include the costs associated with offsetting CO2 emissions, with 80% of the offsets coming from contributions to "high-quality climate protection projects" and 20% coming from the use of SAF, the group adds. The new fare category is offered by Lufthansa, Austrian Airlines, Brussels Airlines, Swiss, Edelweiss, Eurowings Discover and Air Dolomiti on more than 730,000 flights per year within Europe and to Morocco, Algeria and Tunisia. The group says currently 3% of passengers offset CO2 emissions through one of its offers along the travel chain. It aims to inspire 5% of its passengers to travel more sustainably by the end of the year. Lufthansa Group also aims to halve its net CO2 emissions compared to 2019 by 2030 and achieve a neutral CO2 balance by 2050.