Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates: The first Etihad Airways flight to use Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF) supplied by ITOCHU Corporation and NESTE took off from Tokyo Narita Airport today.
The pioneering flight, EY871 took off from Tokyo Narita at 1500, was the result of a partnership in which ITOCHU supplied Neste MY Sustainable Aviation Fuel to Etihad, the national airline of the United Arab Emirates, making Etihad the first airline to obtain FAS in Japan.
Cassie Mackie, Vice President of Purchasing and Supply Chain, Etihad Airways, said: “The aviation industry needs partnerships like the one we have created with ITOCHU and NESTE to drive the adoption of SAFs across the board. ‘industry. We are extremely proud to be the first international airline to source and use Japanese-provided SAF on flights departing from Japan and to see this partnership take off.
“Etihad is committed to achieving net zero emissions by 2050 and to reducing our 2019 emissions by 50% by 2035. Industry needs to take decarbonization seriously and this type of collaboration between governments, businesses and the aviation industry, which is increasing the supply and availability of SAF at airports, is helping to pave the way for wider adoption.
Today’s flight operated with a mixture of approximately 40% SAF, representing the first delivery of some 50,000 gallons of SAF, which will be used on a number of flights in the coming weeks. This is the first time that a non-Japanese airline has used SAFs supplied in Japan.
The flight reduced CO2 by approximately 75.2 tCO2, based on estimated fuel volume (20,000 USG) at 39.66% SAF blend. The flight also managed non-CO2 environmental impacts through flight planning optimized for contrail prevention, deploying SATAVIA technology for an expected net reduction in climate impact of 71 tCO2e (carbon dioxide equivalent ).
Aircraft contrails, or contrails, cause surface heating responsible for up to 60% of the overall aviation climate footprint. Until recently, technical challenges made contrail prevention difficult or impossible, but atmospheric modeling from UK-based SATAVIA now enables flight plan optimization for contrail prevention in addition to analysis. of the climate impact after the flight.
In December 2021, the Japanese government announced the goal of replacing 10% of aviation fuel consumption by Japanese airlines with SAF by 2030. To achieve this goal, ITOCHU has set up a network of sourcing SAF at Japanese domestic airports across the country for Japanese domestic carriers, which is now being extended to international carriers, starting with Etihad.
ITOCHU has already established a national SAF supply chain at Haneda and Narita international airports, from SAF import and quality control to delivery to airports, as well as a refueling network in fuel for the planes themselves. ITOCHU plans to expand its SAF supply base at Central Japan International Airport and Kansai International Airport, which will enable it to further increase the supply of SAF to Japanese and international airlines.