While it is hardly unique to the UK for aviation industry leaders to be calling for the government to provide ”more carrot than stick” when it comes to sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) production, recent interventions are timely given the mandate for it to comprise at least 10% of its airlines’ fuel by 2030

Unveiled by the government in the summer of 2021, the mandate is itself a key staging point to the wider goal of achieving net-zero flying by 2050, the roadmap for which was a topic of much discussion at the recent Airlines 2022 conference – an event co-organised by FlightGlobal together with industry bodies Airlines UK, BAR UK and IATA, focusing on the competitiveness of the country’s airline sector.

”Our government set out a bold ambition for SAF use in the UK, including a mandate we expect to come into force in 2025,” says Virgin Atlantic chief executive Shai Weiss. ”But as we approach the end of 2022, industry, producers and potential investors are still awaiting final details – or more likely, as is common in the UK, yet another consultation on the UK SAF mandate.

”[Reaching] 10% SAF in 2030 requires 40 million tonnes of SAF globally, and 1.5 million tonnes in the UK. That is a scale-up of 100-times of production available today,” he adds. ”While production at scale remains a challenge globally, in the UK we are falling behind. Other countries are addressing this problem differently and acting accordingly.”

One of the things UK…