SINGAPORE—Air China has completed the country’s first uptake of sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) in a commercial flight.
On July 14, an Airbus A350-900 (reg. B-307A) flying from Hangzhou Xiaoshan International Airport to Beijing took in fuel with a 10% SAF blend from local supplier Sinopec, state media outlet CGTN reported.
It is unclear whether the arrangement will continue on a regular basis. Sinopec’s plant in Zhenhai is currently the only SAF production facility in China. In May 2022, the plant was awarded certification from the Roundtable on Sustainable Biomaterials; the following September, it received a fuel airworthiness certificate from the Civil Aviation Administration of China.
SAF produced at the plant is already used in delivery flights for Airbus aircraft coming out of the OEM’s final assembly line in Tianjin.
Hangzhou’s proximity to Zhenhai—with the airport just a 2-hr. drive from the Sinopec plant—has allowed it to become the first major airport in China to offer SAF to airlines.
Access to SAF remains scarce in the Asia-Pacific region, despite commitments by many Asian carriers to reach net zero by 2050. A number of airlines—such as Cebu Pacific, China Airlines and Cathay Pacific—have touted their uptake of SAF in demonstration flights. However, these flights took in blended SAF from Singapore, which boasts the only other major SAF production and blending site in the region at present.
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