Enilive, Volotea to increase SAF adoption at 15 airports

Low-cost airline Volotea and Italian energy firm Enilive have signed a long-term commercial agreement to facilitate the supply of sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) at 15 airports across Italy.

The agreement could allow Volotea to have access to up to 15m liters of SAF between 2025 and 2030. Volotea has already started introducing SAF in its aircraft since 2022 and, between 2022 and 2023, has used 1m liters of SAF.

“Signing this letter of intent is a further step towards more sustainable aviation and the first act of a new journey together with an important partner like Enilive, which we hope will allow us to provide SAF to our aircraft in some of the Italian airports where we operate,” said Gloria Carreras, ESG Director, Volotea.

Enilive is developing biofuels from renewable raw materials at biorefineries in Venice, Gela, and SBR biorefinery in the US.

The company is set to begin biofuels production from 2026. The company also has a partnership with PETRONAS and Euglena to begin producing biofuels in Malaysia from 2028 onwards.

“We have been investing for over ten years with the aim of increasing biorefining capacity to over 5m tons/year and SAF production up to 2m tons/year,” said Stefano Ballista, CEO, Enilive.

“From the end of the year, the SAF production plant will be operational in our biorefinery in Gela and from 2026 in Porto Marghera. This will allow us to meet the requests of airlines such as Volotea to meet the obligations set by the European ReFuelEU Aviation Regulation, which establishes minimum quotas of sustainable fuel, starting from a minimum of 2% from 1 January 2025 up to 70% from 2050”.