The first sustainable aviation fuels (SAF) delivery recently took place at the Airbus Canada’s A220 site, enabling teams in Mirabel, Quebec, Canada—home of Montréal–Mirabel International Airport—to use SAF for production, customer acceptance, and test flights.
Now, all Airbus commercial aircraft assembly sites around the world are using sustainable aviation fuel for internal operations. Additionally, all Airbus commercial aircraft delivery centers around the world will offer SAF to customers for ferry flights this year, Airbus reported. The company expects to use 600,000 liters (158,503 gallons) of SAF with a 30% blend this year at the Airbus Mirabel site, resulting in a reduction in CO2 emissions of around 400 metric tons.
“On average, SAF can reduce CO2 emissions by up to 80% compared to traditional jet fuel,” Airbus Canada CEO Benoît Schultz said in a news release. “This substantial reduction is crucial to the industry’s progress toward decarbonization by 2050. It’s a big milestone to now have our Mirabel site in Canada, as SAF capable as our other Airbus sites.
“It not only means we can test our A220 aircraft using SAF, but we will also be able to deliver them to our customers with SAF, too.”
In 2024, 18% of Airbus global fuel mix for the year was SAF, the company said. That’s more than 16 million liters of neat SAF. Alongside this, 75% of Airbus aircraft worldwide were delivered with SAF, representing the high priority customers are placing on decarbonization.
Management of SAF in Mirabel will be done using the mass balance principle. Once the SAF has been transported and delivered to Airbus Canada, it is blended with conventional aviation fuel (CAF), also known as Jet-A1 in the Mirabel site’s fuel farm. The dilution of CAF and SAF in the fuel tanks is allowed through established standards and auditable bookkeeping. Airbus Canada has the ambition to deliver SAF proof of sustainability to A220 customers receiving their aircraft from Mirabel in 2025. SAF has been used in A220 aircraft delivered from the company’s A220 mobile final assembly line since 2016.
Like all Airbus aircraft, the A220 already can operate with up to 50% sustainable aviation fuel. Airbus aims for all its aircraft to be capable of operating with up to 100% SAF by 2030.