Airbus delivers first A220 across Atlantic using half sustainable aviation fuel

Since 2016, Airbus has offered customers the option to receive aircraft deliveries with SAF onboard. As of this year, all five delivery centers—located in Toulouse, Hamburg, Mobile, Tianjin, and Mirabel—can provide this service. Benoît Schultz, CEO of Airbus Canada, said: “78% of Airbus aircraft were delivered with SAF blend for the first half of the year.” In 2024, three-quarters of Airbus’s total deliveries also used some amount of SAF.

Airbus has been integrating sustainable fuels into its own operations for nearly ten years and plans to increase internal usage to at least 30% by 2030. At Mirabel alone, about 170,000 liters of pure SAF will be used this year as part of production activities—a move expected to cut carbon emissions by roughly 400 metric tonnes in 2025.

The company has also extended SAF use beyond deliveries. Since 2019, its Beluga transport fleet has operated between production sites using SAF blends. Test flights began incorporating sustainable fuels in 2022.

In employee travel initiatives since 2022, Volotea has run shuttle flights between Hamburg and Toulouse for Airbus staff using a 34% SAF blend. Additionally, Air France-KLM and Airbus introduced a fares agreement in which business travel between Paris and five European cities includes options for purchasing SAF.

Airbus has supported airline partners in trialing regular route operations with sustainable fuels as well. Between November last year and January this year, it partnered with easyJet on Toulouse–Bristol services by financing enough SAF for three months’ worth of flights at a 30% blend.

Earlier this year in Brussels at Charleroi Airport, Airbus worked alongside Wizz Air on an operational trial involving over fifty flights using a SAF mix while also conducting passenger surveys about low-carbon aviation awareness.

The aviation industry views sustainable aviation fuel as central to reducing emissions long-term; according to projections from groups such as the Air Transport Action Group’s “Scenario 3,” more than half of future reductions could come from expanded use of these fuels by mid-century.