Heathrow extends SAF incentive

London’s Heathrow has announced an increase in sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) incentive scheme targeting 3% SAF in 2025 while extending it for another year.

As part of its scheme, the airport will make £86m available to airlines, targeting 3% of aviation fuel used at Heathrow to be SAF – amounting to 187,000 tonnes. The incentive will ensure SAF usage 1% above the UK mandate.

The UK SAF mandate came into effect on January 1.

“Sustainable Aviation Fuel is no longer a future promise—it’s a proven solution that is powering flights worldwide. Our SAF incentive scheme, part of our Connecting People and Planet sustainability strategy, has made significant progress and we’re now exploring options to set a long-term incentive signal to 2030. We are delighted that Government has moved so quickly to legislate the SAF Mandate. We must now accelerate legislation for the SAF Revenue Certainty Mechanism to ensure we can build a domestic industry that will help decarbonise and drive economic growth,” said Matt Gorman, director of carbon strategy at Heathrow.

The scheme encourages airlines to switch to SAF by approximately halving the price gap between kerosene and its cleaner alternative, making SAF more commercially viable for airlines. In 2025.

This is equivalent to over 800,000 economy class passengers round trips from Heathrow to JFK.

Last year, Heathrow extended its carbon cutting scheme for third year through a £71m scheme to help halve the price gap between kerosene and SAF for airlines. In 2024, it made £71m available to airlines through the incentive, targeting up to 2.5% of aviation fuel used at Heathrow to be SAF –  amounting to 155,000 tonnes.