Virgin Atlantic chief executive Shai Weiss hit out at the government over its failure to stimulate investment in sustainable aviation fuels (SAF) when he addressed the Airlines 2022 conference in London on Monday.
The Virgin Atlantic boss told aviation industry leaders: “By the end of this year there won’t be a final investment decision on a single SAF plant in the UK.”
He urged the government “to invest in SAF” with direct funding and loans, arguing: “We need investment in a SAF-driven roadmap for decades to come. SAF can reduce aviation CO2 by up to 40%, but there are barriers to its production. The government set an ambitious SAF target of 10% by 2030 but investors and manufacturers still await the details.
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“The £165 million in government funds has yet to be allocated.
“The SAF mandate requires 40 billion gallons [be produced] globally by 2030, a scale up of 100 times. We must accept this will take huge investment.”
Weiss warned: “The UK is falling behind other countries.
“The US set a target of producing three billion gallons of SAF by 2030 and paved the way for $400 billion in investment. It will ensure US companies corner the market.
“Virgin Atlantic is involved in long-term deals on SAF in the US. Our investment is creating jobs but not in the UK. By 2025 most of our SAF will come from abroad.”
He insisted: “The government supports energy transition but seemingly not for aviation. It needs to think about SAF as it does offshore wind and nuclear.”
Weiss also told the conference: “I’m calling on every airline to invest in the youngest fleet. We welcome hydrogen and electric [propulsion] but they won’t be fit for long-haul in the next 30, 40 years. To think a long-haul aircraft can be fuelled by technologies that don’t exist isn’t realistic.”
Aviation minister Baroness Vere said the government aims to have five SAF plants in production by 2025 and insisted: “We will invest £165 million in SAF.”
Airbus UK head of public affairs Oriel Petry dismissed the idea that the government would use aviation taxes to finance SAF, saying: “You’re not going to convince the Treasury to ringfence tax. It’s not how the Treasury does its books.”
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