Summary
- Air Recent Zealand’s Opportunity Statement engages global innovators to collaborate on sustainable aviation fuel for emissions-free aviation.
- The airline seeks short, medium, and long-term SAF agreements to scale back carbon emissions by 28.9% by 2030, advocating for a strategic regulatory package.
- Evaluation by the SAF Consortium outlines a pathway for a domestic SAF industry meeting 50% of Recent Zealand’s aviation fuel demand by 2050.
Working in aviation, one sees many press releases and announcements day by day, but today, something recent arrived from Air Recent Zealand – An Opportunity Statement. The airline has invited innovators and start-ups worldwide involved in sustainable aviation fuel to hitch it because it plots a pathway to emissions-free aviation.
Kickstarting the SAF discussion
Air Recent Zealand’s Opportunity Statement gives interested suppliers an outline of the carrier’s sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) requirements based on its network, fleet, sustainability targets and criteria. The Kiwi full-service carrier said the statement is meant to kickstart discussions around identifying recent opportunities and ongoing collaboration within the manufacture and provide of SAF.
Photo: Vincenzo Pace | Easy Flying
The person best placed to elucidate the initiative is Air Recent Zealand Chief Sustainability Officer Kiri Hannifin who identified that SAF is integral to the aviation industry’s future, which she says faces a really steep challenge to decarbonize.
This is very so for Air Recent Zealand, as most of its emissions come from its extensive network of medium and long-haul routes, where SAF will probably be vital until recent propulsion technologies mature. Hannifin explained further:
“Air Recent Zealand plays an important role in connecting Recent Zealand’s people, tourism and trade to the world, but we must discover a approach to do that more sustainably and as quickly as we will. A stable supply of SAF is critical to our ability to scale back carbon emissions and proceed to play this role for the long run.”
To resolve that dilemma Air Recent Zealand has taken this novel approach, which it said is the primary time an airline has made a world call to potential suppliers within the growing SAF industry to work together on supply opportunities. The airline has already announced various net zero emissions projects and previously opened up its ambitions to recent technology aircraft manufacturers in much the identical way as this Opportunity Statement does with decarbonization.
Image: Air Recent Zealand
Giving certainty to the SAF industry
Cognisant of the numerous investments needed, Air Recent Zealand said it’s trying to enter short, medium and long-term SAF offtake agreements, recognizing that these are sometimes critical to the business case for a plant, mitigating risk through providing demand certainty for the SAF producer, the investors and financiers.
Air Recent Zealand has already signed as much as an interim goal, validated by the Science Based Targets Initiative, which requires a 28.9% reduction in carbon intensity by 2030 from a 2019 baseline. To try this, the airline anticipates it is going to need to make use of SAF for around 20% of its total fuel uptake by 2030, and it’s actively advocating for a long-term and strategic regulatory package to sit down alongside that goal.
Photo: Airbus
While there isn’t any SAF currently available in Recent Zealand, evaluation carried out by the SAF Consortium, which incorporates Air Recent Zealand, Z Energy, Scion, LanzaTech and LanzaJet, shows a pathway to develop a domestic SAF industry to satisfy 50% of the nation’s aviation fuel demand by 2050, supported by a domestic feedstock supply chain.
In 2022, Air Recent Zealand received the primary import of SAF into Recent Zealand when it purchased 1.2 million liters, which might fuel 400 flights from Auckland to Wellington using 100% SAF.
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