British Airways claims it will be the first airline globally to use sustainable aviation fuel produced on a commercial scale in the United Kingdom after signing a multiyear agreement with SAF producer Phillips 66 Limited, the companies announced.
British Airways, which has a net-zero emissions target for 2050, plans to purchase enough sustainable fuel to reduce lifecycle CO2 emissions by almost 100,000 tons, the equivalent of powering 700 net-zero CO2 emissions flights between London and New York on its fuel-efficient Boeing 787 aircraft, according to the airline.
"Thousands of tons of SAF will be produced for the first time in the U.K. at the Phillips 66 Humber Refinery near Immingham and will be supplied to British Airways to power a number of its flights from early 2022," according to the carrier. The fuel will be produced from sustainable waste feedstock at the Humber Refinery, which will deliver its SAF supply to the airline via existing pipeline infrastructure that feeds directly into U.K. airports.
"We are excited to develop our relationship with Phillips 66 Limited further with a view to growing production capacity and using a wider range of sustainable waste feedstocks to supply our future flights," British Airways chairman and CEO Sean Doyle said in a statement.
"We're currently refining almost half a million liters of sustainable waste feedstocks a day, and this is just a start," Humber Refinery general manager Darren Cunningham said. "Markets for lower-carbon products are growing, and this agreement demonstrates our ability to supply them."
Both the carrier and Phillips 66 support proposed U.K. government plans for a future SAF mandate and are members of the U.K. Department for Transport's Jet Zero Council Delivery Group, according to the companies.