How to successfully scale up Sustainable Aviation Fuel solutions

Expanding the use of sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) faces the classic ‘chicken and egg’ challenge. How do we increase demand for a high-cost but much-needed product?

Thankfully, progress is being made. In 2023, more than 490,000 flights used SAF, up from only 500 in 2016. And SAF production doubled – from 300 million liters in 2022 to 600 million liters in 2023. But that’s still less than 1% of global jet fuel use.

The cost remains high, keeping demand relatively low. Producers need capital to invest in new production capacity and reach a scale that competes economically with existing fossil fuels. But many customers are unwilling or unable to pay the price premiums necessary to fund these investments.

Here's the thing: we need SAF right now. The climate crisis requires every industry to decarbonize, and transportation is falling behind. Long-distance commercial flights cause the most air transport emissions and there are no real alternatives to SAF. Battery technology is not ready for long-distance commercial flights, and hydrogen power is not mature enough to replace jet engines in larger aircraft.

Collaborating with committed partners to drive demand for sustainable aviation fuel

How can we solve this problem? How do we create the demand needed to boost supply? The answer is by joining forces with like-minded companies and organizations.

Our most recent strategic partnership is with Standard Chartered, a leading cross-border bank. DHL Express and Standard Chartered have agreed to co-invest in SAF. This partnership is the latest in a growing number of collaborations aimed at increasing demand in SAF so producers are encouraged to scale up production.

Our journey to drive the transition to SAF has been built on partnerships from the very beginning. For example, we’re a proud supporter of the Clean Skies for Tomorrow Coalition (now called Airports of Tomorrow), led by the World Economic Forum (WEF), and a signatory to the 2030 Ambition Statement. Airports of Tomorrow is the WEF’s flagship aviation decarbonization initiative aimed at addressing the energy, infrastructure, and financing needs of the aviation industry’s transition to net zero carbon emissions by 2050.

One important project is developing a ‘book and claim’ system based on the SAFc Framework introduced by the WEF. This system is facilitating the purchase of SAF and proving to be a game changer. In 2021, we joined United Airlines’ Eco-Skies Alliance to test the SAFc concept. In early 2022, we started a three-year cooperation with Air France KLM Martinair Cargo to purchase 33 million liters of sustainable aviation fuel and announced one of the largest SAF deals to date: a collaboration with bp and Neste to buy more than 800 million liters through 2026. In 2023, we partnered with IAG Cargo to order 11.5 million liters of SAF and announced a seven-year agreement with World Energy to purchase 668 million liters, marking more milestones on our journey toward sustainable air freight.

How do we scale up the production of sustainable aviation fuels?

As mentioned above, we have to work together across the aviation value chain to make this model a real game changer. Together with our partners, we’re purchasing the SAF available now and placing orders for more – orders that suppliers don’t even have the capacity yet to fill. Why are we doing this? Because it’s the only way to stimulate the changes needed to create an SAF marketplace – to drive up the demand for and, in turn, the supply of sustainable aviation fuel.

For example, the United Airlines’ Eco-Skies Alliance was a first-of-its-kind program to reduce our environmental impact while helping United make flying more sustainable. In 2021, the  alliance purchased the environmental benefits of 3.4 million gallons (12.87 million liters) of SAF. That eliminated about 31,000 metric tons of GHG emissions over the lifecycle, compared to the use of conventional jet fuel.

And that was just the start. With bp and Neste alone, we will save approx. 2 million metric tons of carbon dioxide emissions (CO₂e) over the aviation fuel lifecycle. With that amount, we could fuel 1,000 flights per year between our Cincinnati (USA) and Leipzig (Germany) hubs for about 12 years! And together with World Energy, we will avoid approx. 1.9 million metric tons of CO₂e over the lifecycle. That’s equivalent to a fully loaded Boeing 744 jumbo air freighter circumnavigating the globe 3,700 times!

How do we share the benefits with our customers? By using the ‘book and claim’ system mentioned above. For example, both our DHL Global Forwarding and DHL Express divisions offer GoGreen Plus. This allows customers to claim the environmental benefits associated SAF and reduce their carbon footprint.