LONDON – Virgin Atlantic has today announced an agreement with Neste Oyi for 2.5 million liters of sustainable aviation fuel.

This fuel will be supplied with the help of ExxonMobil, which will be delivered to the carrier’s base of London Heathrow in the first half of this year.

Such help from ExxonMobil represents an expansion in its relationship with the British carrier.

The move from Virgin comes after the airline is committed to achieving net-zero by 2050.

Commenting on the news was Holly Boyd-Boland, the VP of Corporate Development at Virgin Atlantic:

“After fleet renewal, SAF represents the greatest opportunity to decarbonize aviation in the short to medium term. This supply is the beginning of commercial SAF at scale for Virgin Atlantic and whilst only enough to operate 140 flights between London and New York, it’s a starting point.”

“To meet our 10% SAF target in 2030 we need to deliver this volume more than 70 times over, requiring cross-industry and Government action to support commercialization of SAF at scale, particularly in the UK.”

“We will continue to work closely with Neste and ExxonMobil, as well as wider industry partners, to find innovative solutions to achieve this goal.”

Virgin now becomes the latest company to purchase such sustainable fuels and we will no doubt see more carriers jump onto this trend in the months ahead.