Jet2 has announced that it will use a blend of sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) on flights departing from London Stansted Airport this year.
This comes a month after the low-cost carrier committed to using a blend of SAF at Bristol Airport.
The carrier has purchased approximately 650 tonnes of SAF from Shell Aviation, which will be used to add a 1 per cent SAF blend onto a number of departing flights from Stansted.
Across the two UK airports, Jet2 has purchased approximately 1,000 tonnes of SAF.
These initiatives come ahead of the UK government’s 10 per cent mandate for SAF use by 2030, which will be introduced from 1 January, 2025.
Steve Heapy, CEO of Jet2.com and Jet2holidays, commented:
“Today’s announcement further demonstrates the tangible actions that we are taking to mitigate our climate impacts, and it means will be using a SAF blend from London Stansted in 2024, in addition to Bristol Airport.
“We see SAF as critical in helping the industry decarbonise and as well as doing this, we can use this to ensure our operations are ready for SAF uptake both now and in the future, when we anticipate its use will grow materially. We very much see 1 per cent as the starting point and we want to grow this over the coming years.”
Jet2 has also already made an equity investment into a new SAF production plant in the North West of England, with the airline set to receive more than 200 million litres of SAF once the plant is operational.
Heavy also noted the importance of boosting SAF production, adding:
“Unfortunately, there is still some way to go and without more supplies of UK SAF and greater support to incentivise its uptake and reduce its cost, our industry and UK holidaymakers are at a disadvantage. The UK Government must implement the price revenue mechanism earlier than the current timeline of 2026 which means we can secure investor confidence, build the UK SAF plants that we need, and turbocharge the UK SAF industry.”
