Today, Airlines for America (A4A) announced the commitment of its member carriers to work across the aviation industry and with government leaders in a positive partnership to achieve net-zero carbon emissions by 2050.
As part of that commitment, A4A carriers pledged to work with the government and other stakeholders toward a rapid expansion of the production and deployment of commercially viable sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) to make 2 billion gallons of SAF available to U.S. aircraft operators in 2030.
“We are proud of our record on climate change. But we know the climate change challenge our country and the world face has only continued to intensify,” said A4A President and CEO Nicholas E. Calio. “Today, we embrace the need to take even bolder, more significant steps to address this challenge.”
Some A4A members already have set forth net-zero goals. Calio, however, highlighted the importance of making this an industry-wide commitment.
Many A4A members are already investing in SAF, but the aviation industry requires a similar urgent commitment from policymakers, fuel producers and others in the feedstock and fuel supply chain to achieve meaningful scalability.
“Given that airlines are already driven to be highly fuel efficient, pushing technology, SAF, operational and infrastructure advances even farther to achieve net-zero is a massive undertaking,” said Calio.
“Reaching the 2030 SAF goal alone will require an 84 percent annual average increase in SAF production through 2030. To move the needle, we must all work together, and the government needs to be an active partner and provide positive infrastructure and other investments to complement our efforts.”
