Heathrow Airport wants to triple the amount of sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) it uses this year, but CEO John Holland-Kaye has warned that the UK is falling behind other nations in the race towards greener flying.
Heathrow already provides SAF to airlines and compensates up to half the extra cost through a £38m (R838,3m) fund. The airlines using it are those of British Airways parent company IAG, Virgin Atlantic, United Airlines, Air France, KLM, and JetBlue.
In 2022, 0,5% of fuel bought at Heathrow was thanks to the SAF scheme. On Tuesday, February 21, the airport announced it would increase SAF usage to 1,5% of total fuel by the end of 2023.
Holland-Kaye told PA Media the airport had led the way on decarbonising aviation, but more support from the UK government was needed now, to compete with the rest of Europe and the US in SAF usage.
SAF is made of environmentally friendly resources like agricultural waste and used cooking oil. It reduces carbon emissions by up to 70%, compared with normal aviation fuel, but is much more expensive to produce.
