Emirates has agreed to purchase more than 300,000 gallons of sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) from Shell Aviation.
The deal will allow SAF to be used at the airline's hub in Dubai for the first time, with initial deliveries of the fuel expected before the end of this year.
Emirates will also track its SAF delivery and data through Avelia, the platform created by Shell Aviation, Accenture and American Express Global Business Travel last year.
Tim Clark, president of Emirates Airline, said: “We are proud to work in partnership with Shell to make a SAF supply available for Emirates in Dubai for the first time, and to utilise the Avelia platform that provides business travellers the flexibility to align their sustainability targets and reduce their environmental footprint when travelling.
“We hope that this collaboration develops further to provide an ongoing future supply of SAF in our hub, as there are currently no production facilities for SAF in the UAE.”
Using SAF can reduce carbon emissions from air travel by up to 80 per cent compared with traditional jet fuel.
Earlier this year, Emirates completed the first demonstration flight in the Middle East using 100 per cent SAF. The airline is already using blended SAF for flights departing from Stockholm, Paris, Lyon and Oslo.
Chu Yong-Yi, vice president of Shell Corporate Travel, added: “This agreement marks a step forward for the aviation industry in the UAE. Enabling SAF to be supplied at DXB (Dubai International) for the first time is an important milestone, and a perfect example of how the different parts of the aviation value chain have a role to play in unlocking progress on SAF.”
SAF will also be one of the main topics at airline association IATA’s first World Sustainability Symposium (WSS) in Madrid this week, which will focus on how the industry can achieve its goal of achieving net zero carbon emissions by 2050.
Willie Walsh, IATA’s director general, said: “Sustainability is the industry’s greatest challenge, and we are not shying away from our responsibilities. Our commitment to net zero CO2 emissions by 2050 is firm. The WSS will allow participants to focus on the same mission, with ambition and urgency, to build momentum to reach our goal.”
IATA expects SAF to make the “greatest contribution” to decarbonising aviation by 2050 accounting for around 62 per cent of this process.
The association said that SAF supply was currently “lagging” despite high demand from airlines and there were also “significant challenges” in scaling up production. IATA is calling for the introduction of new government policies to incentivise production, as well as the diversification of methods and feedstocks to create SAF.