Sustainable aviation fuel (SAF)

Air travel is currently almost completely powered by kerosene, a fossil fuel that contributes to climate change. But other options are available.

Sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) is a safe, certified and renewable alternative that we can use today to reduce the negative impact flying has on the climate. Due to its price and limited availability, SAF is still used very little in aviation. That is why scaling up the usage and production of SAF is a common goal for all of us who want to help reduce air travel’s dependency on fossil fuels.

Instead of crude oil, SAF is currently made of waste and residues, such as used cooking oil and animal fat waste. Because of this crucial difference, SAF can reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by up to 80% over the fuel’s life cycle compared to using fossil jet fuel.

Usage of SAF today

Unfortunately, just a very small part of the millions of tons of kerosene used by commercial airlines is SAF. The larger scale use of SAF in aviation is currently limited by price and availability. SAF is two to three times more expensive than regular jet fuel and fuel costs are any airline’s biggest expense.

In 2023, only about 0.2% of Finnair’s total jet fuel consumption was SAF. Thus, the carbon emission reduction was minor compared to our total CO2 emissions. 

Usage of SAF in the coming years

However, the share of SAF on our flights will increase through regulatory mandates and our voluntary actions in the coming years. For example, beginning in 2025, the jet fuel that Finnair and other airlines refuel at major EU airports must contain at least 2% SAF. That percentage will increase gradually each year, with mandates including 6% by 2030, 20% by 2035, and eventually 70% by 2050.

To meet our climate targets, we need to use SAF beyond what is required by law. However, the progress will not be rapid or linear.

In 2025, we aim to double our voluntary SAF purchases from 2024. Voluntary SAF comes on top of the regulatory-mandated SAF amounts. As voluntary SAF amounts are still quite small, this will not change the game yet, but it is a concrete step in the right direction. By 2030, together with the oneworld alliance, we are aiming for a 10% level in SAF uptake.

Using more SAF is a joint effort

To reach our SAF objectives, we are partnering with businesses that fly with us for business or cargo transport. We invite you, too, to join these efforts by opting to make a SAF contribution when booking your next flight on our website or through our climate service. While each individual contribution only has a small effect, we believe all steps need to be taken to drive forward the use and production of SAF.

• Your full contribution is invested in SAF that comes on top of all the other SAF we buy ourselves. We do not profit from your purchase or use your contribution to cover the mandated SAF costs for Finnair.
• The SAF bought with customer contributions meets the criteria of the Refuel EU Aviation regulation. This means that the SAF will be biofuels produced from certain feedstocks, such as used cooking oil and animal fat, that meet the sustainability and GHG emissions criteria set by the EU.
• Your contribution increases the share of SAF in Finnair’s total fuel consumption and does not directly increase the amount of SAF used on your specific flight.
• SAF is not physically transported and fuelled to a specific aircraft or a flight. Instead, the SAF is blended with conventional jet fuel and piped into an airport’s shared fuel system. It can be then purchased and used according to a book and claim principle, a similar system that is used for the green electricity market.
• In 2023, we carried around 11 million passengers. If 1% of our customers each year would contribute an average of 5 EUR towards SAF, we could fly our A350 aircraft from Helsinki to London 25 times with the purchased SAF volumes. This volume of SAF would only cover about 0.04% of our annual fuel consumption—a very small part—yet it would still represent an additional voluntary climate action made possible by you.
• The price of sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) is 2–3 times higher than that of conventional kerosene. This price difference is referred to as the SAF premium. When we procure SAF, we use the customer contributions to cover only the premium portion of the fuel, that is, the price difference. For example, if sustainable aviation fuel costs 3,000 euros and conventional kerosene costs 1,500 euros per ton, the difference in price, or the SAF premium, is 1,500 euros.