# Branson’s latest dare reveals aviation’s green challenge

Richard Branson has long relished the image of the aviation pioneer, from traversing the Pacific in a hot-air balloon to making space travel available for paying customers. Now the British billionaire is participating in the first flight of a commercial aircraft across the Atlantic powered entirely by sustainable aviation fuel, beating arch-rival British Airways to the punch. Virgin Atlantic flight VS100 took off from London Heathrow to New York on Tuesday morning. Besides Branson and Virgin Atlantic CEO Shai Weiss, UK Transport Secretary Mark Harper will be on board the Boeing Co. 787, lending a political dimension to the exercise that seeks to show how the aviation world is cruising toward a cleaner future. But even Branson’s bravado and infectious optimism can’t mask that fact that the road toward net zero, a goal the industry aims to achieve by 2050, is becoming ever hard to navigate. SAF, as sustainable aviation fuel is called, isn’t available in large enough quantities to make a real impact. And airlines worry that the higher cost of the fuel will leave passengers footing the bill, just as they return to flying after years of pandemic malaise. For now, large passenger aircraft can’t switch to battery power because they lack the energy density for the foreseeable future to lift a commercial planeload of passengers and cargo into the sky. That leaves only alternative fuels as a viable option. The Virgin Atlantic flight comes just a few days before the COP 28 climate summit kicks off in Dubai, which is also home to Emirates. The world’s largest international airline flew its own SAF flight last week, operating an Airbus A380 on a demonstration flight with one of its four engines powered by 100% sustainable aviation fuel. Harper, speaking to reporters ahead of the flight taking off, said the government sets the mandate while industry needs to “work out how to deliver it, negotiate the contracts and do the pricing.”<br/>