LONDON – Airbus has announced that its Beluga super-transporter jet has joined the sustainable fuels club after commencing a maiden flight from its factory in Broughton, United Kingdom.
The Broughton line station is well known for the creation of wings, of which the Beluga transports them to the likes of Toulouse, Hamburg and Bremen.
With this line station now supplying Sustainable Aviation Fuels (SAFs) to the Beluga, this makes the plant the second Airbus site in Europe to adopt this measure.
Commenting on the news was Tony Derrien, SAF Project Manager for Airbus:
“Combined with our ongoing research into the potential for 100% SAF in commercial flights, reducing fossil fuels in our own operations underlines Airbus’ commitment to lessening the impact of our manufacturing footprint and contributing towards a more sustainable future for the aviation sector more generally.”
Also commenting on the news was Andy Owen, the Beluga Line Station Manager at Broughton:
“The progressive deployment of sustainable aviation fuels at Airbus’ sites is an essential part of our decarbonization roadmap. We’re proud that Broughton has become the second Airbus site to introduce SAF in its Beluga-fleet operations.”
At the moment, SAFs can only be used in 50% of fuelled commercial flights, with the Belugas from Broughton will be operating with a 35% blend of non-fossil derived fuel, which will reduce CO2 emissions by more than 400 tonnes over the next three months.
This is another step in the right direction, and eventually, Airbus are confident to get to the point of powering flights with nothing but SAFs going into the future.
