NEW DELHI : India has all the ingredients to become a large market for sustainable aviation fuel, said Julien Manhes, head of sustainable fuel projects at Airbus.
The use of SAF gives unique opportunity to countries to reduce their dependence on fossil fuel and it needs a regulator to implement policies and airlines which are willing, Manhes said.
“Sustainable aviation fuel is at the beginning of becoming larger at scale..globally currently it has less than 1% of overall fuel consumption,” he said.
Globally, airlines like United, Air France, EasyJet, Qantas, Lufthansa have been quicker in adapting to SAF; others are a bit slower but Airbus expects that by 2050, nearly 70% of the global ATF consumption should be SAF driven.
Fuel efficiency is also one of the steps towards energy conservation, Manhes said, adding that 63% of Indian fleet comprises fuel-efficient new generation aircraft, Manhes said.
Airbus is working on changes to the aerodynamic, avionic and other small changes to aircraft technology to gain better fuel efficiency, Manhes added.
Airbus is working on a new project on hydrogen and expects the commercial entry of such an aircraft into service by 2035. The aim is to have “a good double-digit” saving when it comes to fuel efficiency as compared to the current product, he said.
