Airbus receives SAF delivery at Canada centre

Airbus Canada announced that it received first sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) delivery at the A220 site in Mirabel allowing the company to use the fuel for production, customer acceptance and test flights.

Airbus Canada’s SAF roll out means the company now uses SAF across all its sites for the internal operations.

“On average, SAF can reduce CO2 emissions by up to 80% compared to traditional jet fuel. This substantial reduction is crucial to the industry’s progress towards decarbonisation by 2050. It’s a big milestone to now have our Mirabel site in Canada, as SAF capable as our other Airbus sites. It not only means we can test our A220 aircraft using SAF, but we will also be able to deliver them to our customers with SAF too,” said Benoît Schultz, CEO, Airbus Canada.

Airbus used nearly 16m litres of SAF during 2024 – accounting for nearly 18% of the total fuel usage. In addition, the company also delivered nearly 75% of the aircrafts by using SAF.

The aerospace giant said it plans to use SAF in Mirabel using the mass balance principle. Once the SAF has been transported and delivered to Airbus Canada, it is blended with the conventional aviation fuel (CAF) also known as Jet-A1 in the Mirabel site’s fuel farm.

The dilution of CAF and SAF in the fuel tanks is allowed through established standards and auditable bookkeeping. Airbus Canada has the ambition to deliver SAF Proof of Sustainability (PoS) to A220 customers receiving their aircraft from Mirabel in 2025.

SAF has been used in A220 aircraft delivered from our A220 Mobile Final Assembly Line since 2016.

As with all Airbus aircraft, the A220 is already able to operate with up to 50% Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF). Airbus aims for all its aircraft to be capable of operating with up to 100% SAF by 2030.