Published in Midwest Flyer Magazine August/September 2022 Digital Issue
For the first time in aviation history, a CORSIA certified batch of sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) was delivered to a commercial airline. The announcement was made July 12, 2022.
Neste, the world’s leading SAF producer, delivered a batch of its Neste MY Sustainable Aviation Fuel™ to American Airlines at San Francisco International Airport. This was part of a pilot program to certify SAF as a CORSIA eligible fuel that can be used by an airline to meet its emissions obligation under CORSIA.
The Carbon Offsetting and Reduction Scheme for International Aviation (“CORSIA”) is a carbon offset and carbon reduction scheme to lower CO2 emissions for international flights, to curb the aviation impact on climate change. It was developed by the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO). But until now, no airline in the world has taken delivery of CORSIA-certified SAF, making this delivery a first.
Neste has been working together closely with aviation stakeholders to accelerate the use of SAF and has a long-standing partnership with American Airlines. Both companies support CORSIA’s emissions reduction goals, but as the SAF certification process under CORSIA is new, they decided to set up a pilot project to certify a batch of SAF and use that process to understand its challenges.
“Sustainable aviation fuel is widely acknowledged as a key element in achieving the aviation industry’s goals of carbon neutral growth from 2020 and reaching net-zero emissions by 2050,” says Thorsten Lange, Neste’s Executive Vice President, Renewable Aviation. “The pilot with American Airlines was a perfect opportunity for proving the feasibility of delivering CORSIA certified SAF and gaining useful insights into setting up the process and the challenges we need to overcome to enable the implementation of CORSIA.”
Compliance with the CORSIA sustainability criteria requires independent attestation by an ICAO-approved Sustainability Certification Scheme (SCS). Neste decided to pursue this certification from the International Sustainability and Carbon Certification (ISCC) system.
