Online Reporter
Kenya Airways Plc is on a mission to prove that sustainable aviation fuel can be made in Africa, potentially giving it a new way to seek financing to cut its emissions.
The Nairobi-based airline plans to run four return flights from October 14 to October 21 mainly using a SAF blend. The first leaves on Tuesday from Nairobi to Paris, where new rules require airlines to use at least 2 percent SAF on departing flights.
The outgoing flight will run on jet fuel blended with a locally produced biofuel made from plants such as croton, a domestic, drought-resistant crop.
In 2023, Kenya Airways became the first African carrier to operate a long-haul flight from the continent with SAF supplied by Eni SpA and imported from Italy.
But buying and shipping SAF from overseas is prohibitively expensive for African airlines; the green fuel already costs at least twice as much as conventional jet fuel.
Operators on the continent can face costs as much as five times higher compared with jet fuel because of a lack of local production, according to Kenya Airways chief executive officer Allan Kilavuka. African passengers are generally unwilling to pay extra for lower-carbon flights, Kilavuka said, “so we need to find a way to reduce SAF production costs and hopefully get subsidies from organisations or governments.”
Kenya Airways will also run SAF-powered flights from Nairobi to Amsterdam, London and Cape Town. — Bloomberg
