Airbus is now offering airlines 5% free sustainable aviation fuel for delivery flights out of its European bases. The plane manufacturer is already doing this at other delivery centers, and IndiGo became the first airline to claim this offer with its delivery flight from Toulouse.

IndiGo becomes the first airline to claim the offer

India’s largest airline IndiGo is the biggest customer of the Airbus A320neo family of aircraft. As such, it receives frequent deliveries from Airbus on a regular basis. But one such delivery on July 3rd was slightly special as it was the first aircraft to fly with free 5% sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) offered by Airbus for delivery flights out of Europe.

The plane maker recently announced that it is offering up to 5%-pure SAF, free of charge, to customers taking delivery of aircraft in Toulouse and Hamburg. Airbus has set a goal to reach 10% pure SAF in the fuel mix of its operations in 2023. It now wants to cover ferry flights too, which are when airlines fly a new aircraft to its home base.

Photo: Airbus

The first airline to benefit from this offer was IndiGo, whose new A320neo took off from Toulouse on July 3rd. The airline has almost 1,000 A320neo family aircraft on order, 500 of which were recently placed at the Paris Air Show.

Stocking up

Airbus’ offer of free SAF for delivery flights from its European centers comes after its efforts in the US and China. At their discretion, customers ferrying aircraft from the Tianjin, China, and Mobile, Alabama, delivery centers to their home base are already offered varying concentrations of SAF.

Now its delivery teams are offering 5%-pure SAF to all customers (terms and conditions apply) departing Toulouse and from September to those taking delivery in Hamburg.

Photo: Airbus

To ensure this objective is met, Airbus has secured 6,805 hectoliters (HL) of SAF with different blend ratios, ranging from 30 to 49%. This will create around 18,000 HL, or 475,500 US gallons, of blended SAF for 2023 alone. Airbus’ head of SAF and fuel efficiency, Julien Manhes, commented,

“Naturally Airbus’ ambition goes beyond 2023. We’re working to secure SAF supplies into next year and beyond, for ferry flights departing all our delivery centres. We’re sending a strong signal to our customers, the fuel ecosystem, and the wider sector: SAF has arrived.”

Big plans

Airbus is aiming to make its entire product portfolio capable of flying with 100% SAF by 2030. All of its aircraft, including military planes and helicopters, can already fly with 50% SAF-blended fuel.

The plane manufacturer recently announced a partnership with LanzaJet to support building SAF facilities which will use LanzaJet’s proprietary Alcohol-to-Jet (ATJ) technology pathway and accelerate the certification and adoption of 100% drop-in SAF, which would allow existing aircraft to fly without fossil fuels.

Photo: Airbus

In November 2021, Airbus flew its first flight with 100% SAF (unblended) on both engines of the Airbus A350 aircraft. Two Rolls-Royce Trent XWB engines powered the test aircraft. It conducts several such test flights and experiments and aims to perform ground and in-flight emissions tests to gather sufficient data to accurately determine the advantages of SAF over conventional jet fuel.

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