IAG signs 260m gallons SAF offtake agreement with Twelve

International Airlines Group (IAG), representing five European airlines, announced that it has signed a 14-year offtake agreement for 260m gallons of e-SAF with Twelve.

“This new deal will contribute towards our 2030 SAF target as well as helping IAG to meet future mandate requirements in key markets. We would like to see similar projects scale in Europe, and we look forward to working with governments across our key markets to build a SAF industry to deliver jobs, economic growth and a stable supply of SAF,” said Luis Gallego, CEO, IAG.

Under the terms of the agreement, Twelve will supply IAG with 260m gallons of e-SAF to support its five European airlines including British Airways, Iberia, Aer Lingus, Vueling and LEVEL over the course of 14 years.

The deal makes IAG the first European airline group to announce an e-SAF deal, and the agreement will enable IAG to continue increasing its SAF use, which was approximately 12% of the global supply in 2023.

The two companies first began partnering in 2020, when Twelve joined IAG’s Hangar 51 start-up accelerator programme to commercialise Twelve’s technology.

This deal brings the scale-up of e-SAF, produced using power-to-liquid technology, one step closer to reaching its full potential in the aviation industry. e-SAF does not face feedstock limitations, has a high degree of emissions reduction versus conventional jet fuel and has a relatively low land and water-use footprint.

Berkley-based Twelve has developed and patented a proprietary process that can produce high-quality synthetic fuels from renewable electricity and CO2. The company is constructing a demonstration plant in Moses Lake, Washington, which will supply the first SAF deliveries to IAG starting as early as 2025.

“Power-to-liquid fuels like Twelve’s e-jet mean no compromises when it comes to air travel. Aviation is a hard to decarbonise sector and power-to-liquid e-SAF offers an industry-leading emissions reduction potential, with the added benefits of abundant feedstock supply and significantly smaller land and water footprints compared to alternative SAF pathways. We are proud to partner with IAG to advance toward a cleaner future of aviation with our E-SAF, a drop-in ready SAF made from CO2,” said Nicholas Flanders, co-founder, Twelve.

This deal is the largest e-SAF commitment announced by any European airline Group, which earned IAG an award for ‘SAF Offtake Agreement of the Year’ award at the inaugural SAF Investor Conference  in London on February 27th.