Boeing slams oil majors for ‘inaction’ on sustainable aviation fuel

US plane maker Boeing has accused the world’s biggest oil companies of doing too little to produce sustainable aviation fuel amid growing frustration within the aviation industry about the lack of supply.

SAF, made from waste oils and agricultural feedstock, can cut carbon emissions from air travel by as much as 80 per cent, according to the airline sector. A huge jump in production is essential to give the industry a chance of reaching its target of carbon neutrality by 2050.

Global supply of SAF meets barely 1 per cent of the aviation industry’s requirements.

Major oil producers “need to lean in harder” and boost production, Robert Boyd, Boeing’s head of sustainability for the Asia-Pacific region, said at the Singapore Airshow.

Smaller and less-established green fuel producers such as Neste Oyj and SkyNRG BV are doing a better job of building out a SAF industry than well-resourced companies such as Exxon Mobil, said Mr Boyd.

“I don’t think they’re doing enough”, he said of the traditional energy sector.

The inadequate flow of the cleaner fuel has been a major talking point at the air show. Lifting supply is also essential to making it more affordable for airlines.

Conventional jet fuel is already one of the biggest costs for airlines, but SAF can be three to five times more expensive.

Aviation’s transition to net zero will require an investment of as much as $5 trillion up to 2050, much of it needed to increase sustainable fuel production, according to the International Air Transport Association.

Iata chief Willie Walsh has also called upon oil producers to make more low-emissions aviation fuel.

Addressing an aviation summit in Singapore, he described the airline industry’s struggle to decarbonise as an “existential issue”.

At the same event, Exxon’s vice president for Asia-Pacific fuels, Ong Shwu Hoon, said the company was focused on making more low-emissions fuel for the transport industry, including aviation.

The SAF supply chain requires more investment, she said. Exxon, she added, is learning to deal with the agricultural companies involved in the new process.

Haldane Dodd, executive director of the Air Transport Action Group, said the energy industry was not doing enough. Major oil producers are capable of doing much more to support SAF production, Mr Dodd said at the airshow. “If anybody has the capital, the expertise, the intelligence and the human resources to deliver this product, it’s them.”