Air France-KLM doubles SAF usage in 2023

Air France-KLM Group announced that it incorporated 80,000 metric tons of sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) in flight operations to reduce overall carbon emissions during 2022, double from the 2022 levels.

This represents a 1% incorporation rate (compared to 0.6% in 2022) of SAF in total fuel usage. Air France-KLM claimed that it is likely to be world’s largest SAF user in 2023, accounting for around 16% of world’s SAF production.

The group was the world’s largest SAF user in 2022, accounting for 17% of the world’s production.

In October 2022, the group also announced having secured one third of its 2030 SAF needs via offtake agreements with Neste and DG Fuels, covering a total of 1.6m tons of SAF.

In addition, in 2023, the group also signed several agreements with with SAF producers around the world to secure the future volumes required to meet its 2030 targets.

The group has diversified partnerships across different SAF production technologies (HEFA, advanced aviation biofuels and e-fuels) and different geographical regions including Engie (KerEauzen project, France), EDF (Take Kair project, France), Elyse Energy (BioTfuel project, France), TotalEnergies (France), OMV (Austria), Raven (USA) and Groupe International SAF + (Canada), as well as with other SAF producers and energy providers based in Europe, North and South America.

In November 2023, Air France-KLM announced $4.7m investment in SAF producer DG Fuels.  Along with this investment, the Group acquired an option to purchase an additional 75,000 tons of SAF from DG Fuels over a multi-year period beginning in 2029.