Virgin Atlantic Operates Transatlantic Flight With SAF

Virgin Atlantic has made history by flying the world’s first 100% Sustainable Aviation Fuel flight across the Atlantic.

The flight departed London Heathrow and arrived at New York JFK.

A Historic Flight For Virgin Atlantic

Labelled Flight100, Virgin Atlantic’s mission since day 1 has been to prove that SAF is a safe and reliable replacement for fossil-derived jet fuel.

Additionally, Virgin Atlantic believes SAF is the only mid-term viable solution for decarbonising long-haul aviation and must be pursued widely to help airlines reach their goals.

The flight was operated by a Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner equipped with Rolls-Royce Trent 1000 engines and is a milestone for several teams that have worked tirelessly in recent times.

SAF Is The Future, For Now

Virgin Atlantic is aware of other critical technologies being studied, such as electric and hydrogen. However, concerns remain about how far these are from widespread implementation.

Thus, Virgin describes SAF as a mid-term solution to help the industry reach its objectives. However, SAF only represents less than 0.1% of the global jet fuel volumes.

Virgin hopes that, through the successful completion of Flight100, it’ll be able to scale up production and implementation, which will bring significant benefits.

Several manufacturers and start-ups are already studying the next generation of powering aircraft. However, the timeframe and success rates of this remain unclear.

As a result, airlines within the industry, such as Virgin Atlantic, need to find ways to achieve Net Zero sooner rather than later with options such as SAF.

Understanding More About Flight100

Virgin Atlantic says the SAF utilised on Flight100 is a unique dual blend. As part of this, 12% is SAK (Synthetic Aromatic Kerosene) supplied by Virent, a key subsidiary of Marathon Petroleum Corporation.

Meanwhile, 88% of the blend comes from HEFA (Hydroprocessed Esters and Fatty Acids), which AirBP supplies.

HEFA is made from waste fats; SAK comes from plant sugars. To achieve Net Zero 2050, further investment will be required across the board.

Virgin Atlantic wants to lead the way through this successful transatlantic crossing. It hopes to show how worthwhile SAF investment can be and how transformative it can be in the mid-term.

Comments From Executives

Flight100 proves that Sustainable Aviation Fuel can be used as a safe, drop-in replacement for fossil-derived jet fuel and it’s the only viable solution for decarbonising long haul aviation. It’s taken radical collaboration to get here and we’re proud to have reached this important milestone, but we need to push further. There’s simply not enough SAF and it’s clear that in order to reach production at scale, we need to see significantly more investment. This will only happen when regulatory certainty and price support mechanisms, backed by Government, are in place. Flight100 proves that if you make it, we’ll fly it.

Shai Weiss, Chief Executive Officer, Virgin Atlantic

The world will always assume something can’t be done, until you do it. The spirit of innovation is getting out there and trying to prove that we can do things better for everyone’s benefit. Virgin Atlantic has been challenging the status quo and pushing the aviation industry to never settle and do better since 1984. Fast forward nearly 40 years, that pioneering spirit continues to be Virgin Atlantic’s beating heart as it pushes the boundaries from carbon fibre aircraft and fleet upgrades to sustainable fuels.

Sir Richard Branson, Founder, Virgin Atlantic