Airlines hope that sustainable fuels will propel them to a guilt-free future

Sustainable aviation fuels may or may not eventually transform the carbon footprint of flying. But while a full tank is a way off, the mere whiff of a guilt-free future has got airline executives giddy. The annual meeting of Iata, the airlines’ global trade body, in Istanbul last week served up some exotic fare. Was that Willie Walsh, its director general, denouncing governments for “greenwashing”? And Marjan Rintel, boss of KLM and fresh from a Dutch court battle against government caps on Schiphol flights, outlining her purpose to “create memorable experiences on the planet we care for”? And Mehmet Tevfik Nane, head of Turkish airline Pegasus, co-hosting an event for 1,500 delegates where he urged firms and states to join their climate struggle, saying “we have to take care and heal our world”? Wider society’s mix of dissociation, hope and underlying fear about climate is writ large in aviation, whose leaders are well aware of its outsized share of greenhouse gas emissions and lack of easy options to decarbonise. Meanwhile, passenger numbers are booming, with rampant demand for travel after Covid. Airlines are gearing up for worldwide growth, as China reopens and Indian carriers expand. Bar the obvious solution of flying less, immediate tangible steps to cut CO2 are limited. Commercial flights using hydrogen or electric power are, at best, a hope for the future. Replacing old fleets with modern fuel-efficient planes for less CO2 a head is a step most airlines are taking – but that benefits the bottom line more than the environment when more people fly.<br/>