SAS goes SAF

There are two major obstacles when it comes to preventing a broader use of sustainable aviation fuel (SAF), one of them is the scarcity of supply (we discussed this in this podcast interview with Neste’s Jonathan Wood), the other is the higher cost.

In an industry with razor-thin margins this is not a minor issue, after all, fuel is one of the major costs of any airline (easily around 20% of costs), so understandably, even if SAF is somehow available airlines are reluctant to pass it on to their customers.

This is why a number of voluntary SAF biofuel schemes have proliferated. These allow passengers to pay extra for the airline to increase its overall uptake of SAF (even if the actual fuel is not technically used on the same flight they are in), in a way, the mechanics are similar to the voluntary offset schemes.

But voluntary schemes that involve extra costs can only do so much. Some studies have pointed out that despite these being widely available, the opt-in figures are below 5% at most.

When it comes to voluntary SAF purchases, the ones leading the charge on this front are, also understandably, those with deep pockets, large corporates such as Microsoft, Boston Consulting Group or Salesforce. There is even a corporate alliance to do just that, The Sustainable Aviation Buyers Alliance.

Another strategy is making SAF purchases a built-in feature of your product, pretty much the same way that many consumer goods brands now make organic or fairtrade the norm, not the exception.

Or, for example, we heard on the podcast not long ago how, for example, PrivateFly was offsetting be default 100% of the flights booked through its executive jet platform. I guess if you can afford to pay for a private jet you don’t mind adding a bit extra to mitigate the environmental impact.

As often in these cases, we turn to Scandinavia for a similar pioneering environmental approach. SAS is launching a version of its Travel Pass that includes 100% SAF uptake.

The SAS Travel Pass is a product designed for those that travel very frequently between two destinations or a certain area. It is like an abonnement by which you are entitled to a set number of trips on the route you indicate (there is even a version with unlimited trips for a certain period of time), with a number of perks and advantages included.

With the Travel Pass Biofuel you would be paying as if the flights you are taking were running 100% on biofuel. This is certainly not the case in practice, even if enough SAF supply was available, aircraft engines currently in service can run only on 50% biofuel at most. What it does, though, is help SAS add more SAF to the total fuel mix it uses.

SAS says it is not making any extra margin on this, it is simply passing on the extra funds to increase its SAF uptake.

This SAS Travel Pass Biofuel is going to be available on 20, 40, 60, 100 and 200 punches (trips) options and will have a validity of one year.

By the way, to learn more about sustainable aviation projects in the Nordics and SAF in particular, check also this podcast we did with Maria Fiskerud of the Nordic Network for Electric Aviation and a consultant in the field of green aviation.