by Elsie Clark | Dec 10, 2025 | Sustainability
IATA has published its latest sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) production figures and issued a stark warning as the industry looks set to miss key targets.
SAF production has doubled from 2024, reaching 1.9 million tonnes (Mt) by the end of 2025, according to IATA. However, these numbers full short of earlier forecasts, and in 2026 the production rate is projected to slow and reach only 2.4Mt.
IATA lists policies in Europe, including the EU’s ReFuelEU Aviation and UK SAF mandates, as key hindrances. They say these schemes have pushed high SAF costs onto airlines and fail to nurture a stable supply chain. In a strongly-worded statement, Director General Willie Walsh emphasised the urgency of change:
SAF production growth fell short of expectations as poorly designed mandates stalled momentum in the fledgling SAF industry. If the goal of SAF mandates was to slow progress and increase prices, policymakers knocked it out of the park. But if the objective is to increase SAF production to further the decarbonisation of aviation, then they need to learn from failure and work with the airline industry to design incentives that will work.
Marie Owens Thomsen, IATA’s Senior Vice President for Sustainability and Chief Economist, said it would be ‘outrageous’ if regulators were to take the same approach with forthcoming e-SAF mandates. e-SAF already suffers from a much-higher cost base than conventional SAF due to the costs of renewable energy supplies.
Regardless, IATA say the failures of SAF so far have already complicated sustainability targets. Walsh adds:
Regrettably, many airlines that have committed to use 10% SAF by 2030 will be forced to reevaluate these commitments. SAF is not being produced in sufficient amounts to enable these airlines to achieve their ambition. These commitments were made in good faith but simply cannot be delivered.
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by Elsie Clark | Dec 3, 2025 | Innovation, Sustainability
The aviation industry produces 868 megatonnes (Mt) of carbon dioxide every year, making it one of the highest-polluting industries on the planet. And while enthusiasm for sustainability is high, making air travel zero-carbon is a complex challenge, especially as passenger demand only continues to increase.
While sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) production scales, aviation must find other ways of limiting emissions as much as possible. Data is key to this endeavour, as it is only through reliably identifying emission sources that strategies can be developed to tackle them.
This is the mission of Estuaire, a Paris-based startup co-founded by CEO Maxime Meijers. For his innovative work in the field, Meijers was honoured as our Top Innovator at the Aerospace Tech Review Awards 2025. His passion for aviation emerged in his hometown in Toulouse, France’s aviation hub. But after spells at leading aerospace companies, including Airbus, Meijers decided he wanted to build his own business that could more proactively address aviation’s sustainability challenge.
He explains:
Estuaire has two product lines. The first is a data platform where we measure flight-by-flight their climate impact. So we ingest everything, trajectory, weather, aircraft type. Bsically, if you’ve flown a flight we can tell you precisely what this aircraft released in carbon and the associated impact on the environment.
The other side of the business looks at solutions for mitigating climate impact. Meijers’ special passion is reducing contrails: Estuaire estimate that contrails are responsible for over 150Mt of industry emissions.
Meijers and his team have developed a comprehensive index for measuring contrails in real-time, a product they are currently trialling with several airlines. According to their analysis, 2.9% of world flights generated 80% of the total radiative forcing effect of contrails. Rerouting a very small number of flights could therefore have a substantial impact on the climate.
End-to-end contrail management methodology by Estuaire.
Meijers wants to see greater regulation in this area to force further change:
The challenge is that there’s no financial incentives or penalties that push airlines to work on contrails. That’s really something we want to set in place.
Aside from encouraging the EU to act on contrails, Meijers’ ambition is to grow his team and expand their work on emissions monitoring and reduction. On being honoured as Top Innovator, Meijers said:
It’s an award I pass to the team, notably our tech team, because they’re doing the ground work and the quality of our data should speak for itself. So it goes to them first, and having these industry recognitions just encourages us to go further.
🎥 Watch the full interview to hear more about Maxime Meijers’ vision for Estuaire and emissions monitoring in aviation.
Questions asked include:
- Where did your passion for sustainable aviation come from? What was the inspiration behind Estuaire?
- What industry challenges does Estuaire seek to address through its business?
- Which initiatives that you or the company have led that you are most proud of?
- How are you looking to grow in the future? What would you like to do next?
- What is the biggest challenge aviation faces in becoming a sustainable, zero-carbon industry? What advice would you give to help tackle it?
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by Elsie Clark | Nov 24, 2025 | Innovation, Sustainability
Korean Air and Samsung E&A have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to develop a sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) supply chain in the US.
The airline and the engineering firm’s announcement forms part of their commitment to accelerate sustainable energy solutions in aviation. Samsung E&A will build on existing feedstock capacity and infrastructure in the US with its engineering expertise. Meanwhile, Korean Air has signed to become a SAF buyer, ensuring critical long-term demand. Other airlines including Delta and Air France have struck similar agreements to nurture the SAF industry as it takes flight.
Samsung E&A is considering participating in a SAF project that uses gasification–Fischer-Tropsch (FT) technology. This second-generation SAF fuels converts abundant woody waste into synthetic liquid fuel, a significant advance on first-generation processes that use limited supplies of waste cooking oil.
On the partnership with Samsung E&A, a spokesperson for Korean Air commented:
This partnership will further contribute to the aviation industry’s Net Zero 2050 goal and enhance our ability to effectively navigate evolving global environmental regulations, including SAF mandates. Through proactive project participation and continuous cooperation, we aim to accelerate global SAF adoption and advance our commitment to sustainable aviation and ESG management.
A report from IATA earlier this year found that SAF production is currently on track to fall 100 million tonnes short of net-zero emissions targets. The air transport association emphasise that investing in technology, not feedstock, was critical to ramping up sustainability efforts. If successful, Korean Air and Samsung’s new partnership will contribute directly to addressing this issue.
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by Elsie Clark | Nov 12, 2025 | Innovation, Sustainability
The EU’s Innovation Fund has approved ZeroAvia’s application for €21.4 million (US$24.5 million) in funding to advance their hydrogen-electric engines.
The money will go towards a new project in Norway that will see 15 Cessna Caravan planes with ZeroAvia’s ZA600 hydrogen-electric engine. The funding will also go towards hydrogen infrastructure development across the Scandinavian state, including storage and refuelling capabilities.
ZeroAvia founder and CEO Val Miftakhov said:
The EU Innovation Fund is notoriously competitive with applications needing to pass through rigorous assessment and demonstrate compelling evidence for near-term greenhouse gas reductions.
This project will set a phenomenal example by introducing a scaled network of hydrogen-electric aircraft operations, efficiently delivering vital goods to people and businesses across Norway without the typical associated environmental damage.
The Norwegian project will create the largest-established zero-carbon commercial flight network ever. If successful, the deployment of ZeroAvia engines could reduce carbon emissions on kerosene-powered cargo routes by 95%.
The project’s goal is to test the viability of hydrogen propulsion tech in Norway, findings which will in turn inform development across the EU. Regulatory approval for ZeroAvia’s ZA600 powertrain is currently ongoing with both the UK Civil Aviation Authority, and the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA).
ZeroAvia also seeks to expand their hydrogen tech beyond planes. Earlier this year, the company announced it plans to build a facility for hydrogen-electric train manufacture in Scotland.
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by Elsie Clark | Nov 10, 2025 | Sustainability
21 airlines will change their environmental claims after the EU found them to be misleading or exaggerated.
An investigation by the EU Commission and the Network of Consumer Protection Cooperation (CPC) Authorities decided that airlines’ descriptions of carbon offsets and sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) gave passengers a false impression that flying was sustainable. Flight emissions ‘calculators’ and vague net-zero emissions targets were also raised as greenwashing practices.
Lufthansa, KLM, and Ryanair are among the airlines who will now revise their claims after reaching an agreement with the EU. The bloc warned that if they did not fall in line with the investigation, sanctions could follow. The 21 airlines must now use the term ‘sustainable aviation fuel’ with appropriate clarifications, and be much clearer with their carbon offsetting claims.
Agustín Reyna, Director General of BEUC, said:
It is excellent news airlines have agreed to stop luring consumers with green promises following our complaint to the European Commission. It was high time airlines stopped painting flying as a sustainable option. Paying ‘green fares’ to plant trees can never guarantee to suck aircraft emissions out of the air.
The EU’s recommendations made clear that sustainability claims and ‘green’ terminology can only be used if backed up by comprehensive targets, strategies, and timelines. Announced on the eve of COP30, the agreement sends a strong message to all airlines, and highlights how much more needs to be done for aviation to make realistic steps towards decarbonisation and overall sustainability.
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by Elsie Clark | Oct 30, 2025 | Innovation, Sustainability
Honeywell have pioneered a new production process that turns agricultural and forestry waste into sustainable aviation fuel (SAF).
Under the UOP (Universal Oil Products) Biocrude Upgrading process, inexpensive biomass feedstocks such as wood chips and sawmill dust are converted into a renewable biocrude. This can then be refined at existing petroleum refineries, with no need for further specialist facilities.
The new fuel process complements Honeywell’s existing portfolio of renewable fuels. These including Ecofining, developed in partnership with Eni S.p.A., which converts fats and oils into renewable deisel and SAF. Honeywell’s Ethanol-to-Jet (ETJ) tech turns ethanol into synethetic paraffinic kerosene, while the Fishcer-Tropsch Unicracking refines synthetic gas into liquid fuels.
Ken West, President & CEO of Honeywell Energy & Sustainability Solutions, said:
As demand for SAF continues to grow, the aviation industry is challenged by limited supplies of traditional SAF feedstocks such as vegetable oils, animal fats and waste oils.
When combined with the existing Fischer-Tropsch process, our new technology will expand the feedstock options available in the industry to sources that are more plentiful, ultimately helping improve our customers’ ability to produce SAF.
The new biomass-derived fuel puts the US company in competition with other SAF pioneers, including the Finnish brand Neste, the current leader in SAF production. The race to scale SAF is well and truly on, as demand for sustainable fuels far outpaces current supply, and cost pressures inhibit competitivity with the jet fuel market.
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