Green fuel 'shortage' pits planes against cars

Airlines have a "significant shortage" of clean fuel, a major freight carrier warned on Tuesday as it called for supplies to be funnelled into planes rather than cars. German logistics company DHL said the aviation sector should take priority because electric cars mean "there is an alternative" for going greener on the road. A more radical remodelling of planes to run on hydrogen will take another decade at least, said board member Melanie Kreis. A summit in Hamburg heard plane maker Airbus is banking on sustainable aviation fuel (SAF), typically made from animal fats or used cooking oils, to replace fossil fuels in its jet engines and cut more than 50% of its carbon footprint. However, the industry will "need a ramp up of SAF production this decade if we want to make any progress", Ms Kreis said. While DHL bought 70,000 tonnes of sustainable fuel for its 300 cargo planes last year, it was still a small part of the picture, she added. "I could now say we were the airline with the highest SAF blend. Amazingly, it was 3%," she said. "With the 3% that we had last year, we actually bought 14% of global SAF production. What these numbers show clearly is that there a significant shortage. Road is also a big topic but when I look at our last mile delivery fleet, there is an alternative. We can go electric. For the next 10 years, the only chance apart from getting newer aircraft in is SAF. We have to prioritise that these precious limited production facilities are used for aviation."<br/>