European aerospace major Airbus is open to entering into partnerships with Indian companies for production of sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) as the company aims to support the green fuel ecosystem in India, Airbus head of sustainable aviation fuel and fuel efficiency, Julien Manhes, said in an interview.

“In Australia, we decided to co-invest with Qantas in a project to produce sustainable aviation fuel…We are looking for such partnerships in India. We want to work with the magic triangle of airlines, producers and the government. We are looking at such memorandums of understanding in India,” Manhes said. In 2022, Qantas and Airbus had set up a $200-million fund to help the airline meet its goal of using at least 10% SAF by 2030. The two companies had then announced a joint investment of $1.3 million in a bio-fuel refinery, which would convert agricultural by-products into SAF. In India, the civil aviation ministry is developing a strategy for the adoption of SAF by Indian airlines, with recommendations expected to be provided from 2027, Mint reported exclusively earlier this month citing minister Jyotiraditya Scindia. India had earlier considered mandating blended SAF use by airlines from 2025, beginning with 1% green fuel and increasing to 5% by 2030. “This shift indeed indicates there is no local production of SAF in the short term, that is, in 2025, so it makes sense if you want an obligation to be relying on local production. We welcome that India is defining a SAF policy, which could have an obligatory part, and we hope that it is not only the obligatory part, but there are other measures that will come to help the SAF ecosystem to develop,” he said. While the International Civil Aviation Organisation is endorsing various methods for producing green fuel, potential SAF sources in India include cooking oil, municipal solid wastes, agricultural residues, cane molasses, syrup, and hydrogen technology. Airbus sees huge potential for Indian green jet fuel at a global level on the basis of cost advantage as compared to foreign peers. “When we look at projects in India, we can see some price differential which is coming from raw materials, labour, infrastructure. Foreign airlines will be happy to pay for SAF in India because it is likely that it will be cheaper than Europe,” Manhes said. The European aerospace major is working with regulators, industry bodies and other stakeholders to increase the permitted limit on blending of SAF to beyond 50%, but reiterates that the current bottleneck for this industry is production of the sustainable fuel. “We are working with fuel producers to raise the bar and go up to 100%. That may need some modifications to the aircraft. But right now, that is not a bottleneck; availability of SAF is,” he added. In 2023, SAF production in the world doubled to 600 million litres, representing 3% of all renewable fuels, with a forecast to more than triple in 2024 to 1.875 billion litres. This increase would account for 0.53% of aviation fuel needs globally, and 6% of renewable fuel capacity. Livemint tops charts as the fastest growing news website in the world to know more.

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