Cathay Pacific is launching what is said to be Asia’s first corporate Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF) programme, to bring corporate clients the opportunity to cut their carbon footprint from business travel or airfreight.
Joining the airline on this programme are eight launch customers – AIA, Airport Authority Hong Kong (AAHK), DHL Global Forwarding, HSBC, Kintetsu World Express (KWE), PwC China, Standard Chartered, and Swire Pacific.
Cathay Pacific CEO Augustus Tang said the airline is moving towards “more substantial use of SAF, especially in Asia”.
In 2021, the airline was among the first carriers in the world to announce a target of 10 per cent SAF for total fuel use by 2030.
“We have made significant progress since then and are pleased that uplifting SAF from HKIA (Hong Kong International Airport) is now a reality with the strong support of the local authorities and fuel suppliers,” aid Tang.
There has been “enthusiastic response from other corporates” towards the corporate SAF programme, according to Tang, who added that “climate change is a global challenge and we need to work together to tackle it”.
“We see the launch of this corporate SAF programme as an important step for us to engage other like-minded organisations, and a first step in sending an important demand signal to the SAF supply chain that there is firm interest in the region, not only from airlines, but also the aviation value-chain all the way to end users for both passenger and cargo transportation,” he said.
The SAF used for the launch of this programme is made from used cooking oil and animal fat waste, with fuel supplies coming from PetroChina and Shell.
