Kenya Airways Selected to Spearhead IATA’s Sustainable Aviation Fuel Registry

Kenya Airways has been awarded the contract to spearhead the IATA’s Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF) Registry, a major boost to Nairobi-based airline.

This comes after Kenya Airways had experimented with the use of SAF in October where it used the product for a flight from Kenya to the Netherlands.

This flight was the initial one in Africa utilizing SAF, which provided valuable insights required for establishing polices, additional regulations, and standard practices for the usage of the green fuel.

Mr Allan Kilavuka, the managing director of Kenya Airways Group revealed that through its instrumental roles in the formation of the registry, KQ enhances confidence in SAF as a sustainable solution to the problem of climate change within the aviation industry.

It is expected that SAF will contribute up to 65% of the overall CO2 reduction necessary for the aviation sector to achieve its goal of net-zero emissions by 2050.

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Currently, airlines can only purchase SAF from producers with commercial scale, and credit ideal volumes for compliance in line with the SAF registry that is expected to be developed in the first quarter of 2025.

“SAF is key to aviation’s decarbonization,” said IATA Director General Willie Walsh. “Airlines are eager to use SAF, and the SAF Registry will meet the critical needs of all stakeholders, aiding the global effort to scale up SAF production. “

Governments require a reliable tracking of SAF quality and quantity to inform buyers which producers are making high quality SAFs in large quantities. “Producers need to account for deliveries accurately, corporate customers must transparently report their Scope 3 emissions, and airlines require assurance they can claim SAF’s environmental benefits,” Walsh said.

Currently in its pilot phase, the registry has 17 national airlines to join IAG, six national authorities, original equipment manufacturers (OEM) such as Airbus, Boeing and GE Aerospace Company, and fuel producer World Energy.

Such partnerships also ensure that organizations maintain compliance with rules of civil aviation like the ones set by the ICAO on CORSIA and the EU ETS, as well as the overall emissions decrease.

Demonstrating compliance and deliberate reporting of information and data, the SAF registry is intended to enhance the advancement of the utilization of SAFs in the aviation industry, to make a change towards an increasingly sustainable future of aviation.