TWTWTW 18-22 April 2022
Major Breakthrough! Ryanair solves the SAFs conundrum!
Ask most people in aviation about how we use Sustainable Aviation Fuel – let’s talk about SAFs baby – to solve the emissions problem and they look around, looking for the lever to the trapdoor they are obviously standing on. But no! Not anymore! If you can believe its press release, Ryanair has got this problem sorted too! Well, to be fair, Ryanair and its partner Neste Holland. Oh, and you have to use Schiphol Airport if you want to take part in this miracle, but it must be a good start, right?
Ryanair tell us in their release that it will use SAFs
that power approx. a third of its flights at Amsterdam Airport Schiphol (AMS) with a 40% SAF blend. This blend will reduce greenhouse gas emissions by over 60%
You have to admit that this is beyond impressive. Ryanair and Neste are claiming that a 40% blend on 33% of the flights will produce a 60% reduction in emissions. So, in order to reduce emissions 60% on 33% of the flights, these flights would have to be 180% cleaner than the other 67%. And since these 33% of the flights do it with 40% SAF, that makes SAF 450% cleaner than Jet-A1. Or, the other way around, SAF emits 0.2% (.002) as much as Jet-A1 when compressed and combusted. Why, might one ask, are we stopping at merely fueling 33% of the flights? This should be rolled out immediately!
Clearly, missing from the bottom of the press release was the usual note ‘Terms and Conditions apply’. At this point, the jokes write themselves. Oh, you want that fuel in the aircraft? That will cost you… You want it to work to carry passengers? That will cost you too.
A more serious term and condition is that Schiphol has a joint-user hydrant system. Ryanair cannot afford the time it would take for a tanker to roll up to the just arrived aircraft and refuel by hand. So, instead, Ryanair will purchase this Super-SAF and it will be delivered to the hydrant, from where every airline takes their fuel, which will now include a certain amount of this Super SAF blended into the mix.
Another term and condition is that the pipes to the hydrant and the hydrant itself is actually owned and controlled by NATO. You might, rightly, guess that NATO has other things on its mind at the moment than SAFs.
Still, if Ryanair is to be believed, we are on the way to SAF salvation. Terms and conditions may apply.