Sir Richard Branson says SAF progress ‘made tougher’ by US position

Virgin Atlantic founder Sir Richard Branson says the aviation industry’s challenge to get enough sustainable aviation fuel has been “made tougher by what’s happened in the US”.

Speaking at Toronto Pearson International Airport as the carrier re-started flying to Canada for the first time since 2014, Branson said: “People said it was impossible to fly across the Atlantic with SAF. We needed to prove them wrong and took off from London [in November 2023] with a full belly of SAF and landed in New York.

“I have tried to break a number of records. I attempted to cross the Atlantic in a boat and it sank. I then tried in a hot air balloon and it ended up in the sea and we had to be rescued by helicopters. Then we flew the first transatlantic flight by a commercial plane on 100% SAF and we landed safely at JKF.

“We’ve proven it can be done but it’s not easy because getting the quantities of SAF that we need is tough – and we’re challenging the industry to get enough SAF so that all our planes can fly on it.”

He added: “Obviously, what’s happened in America is going to make it tougher. The world was moving towards a place where it was a priority to make this happen and now for one side at least, it’s not high on the agenda.”

Asked how President Donald Trump’s announcement of sweeping trade tariffs might affect the Virgin group of companies, Branson said: “All I can say is that between Canada and Britain there are no tariffs that I am aware of.

“I can’t see any tariffs existing between our two countries and I hope we can become even closer than we have been over the last 50 years and we will try to make sure that happens.”

Branson was also asked what made him confident Virgin Atlantic would not withdraw again from Canada, as it had in 2001 after 9/11, ending its Toronto service, and then pulling out of Vancouver after flying there between 2012-2014.

“Nothing is guaranteed in life. But we’re much stronger than we were 20 years ago,” he said.

“We managed to survive Covid without British government help and were the only airline to do that. We paid back debts and made a profit so I’m confident that 25 years from now, Virgin will still be going strong. We’ve also got new partners which we didn’t have before, [in Delta, Air France/KLM and Westjet].”

He added that he would like to see the Canadian operation expand.

“I’d love to see Virgin flying to the other side of Canada in the near future. I’m not going to mention specific cities, but you can guess which one. Until then, we have a great partner to connect us to 13 cities across the country.”