United Flies to D.C. Using Cooking Oil to Showcase Sustainable Fuels for Fed Dollars
Photo Credit: United Airlines flew a Boeing 737 Max to Washington, D.C., on a 50% blend of sustainable aviation fuel. Skift / Edward Russell
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United Airlines took its sustainability crusade to Washington, D.C., this week. The carrier demoed the ability of used cooking oil to power a jet on a flight to the nation's capital with the aim of getting the feds to pick up some of the estimated $250 billion needed to kick start sustainable fuels.
United Airlines is ramping up its public push for federal sustainable aviation fuel subsidies in its move towards net zero carbon emissions by the middle of the century. On Wednesday, it flew a Boeing 737 Max filled with staff and officials on a blend of 50 percent sustainable aviation fuel, or SAF, to Washington, D.C., in a show of what’s possible with the carbon-cutting fuels.
“This moment is a milestone,” United CEO Scott Kirby said in a hangar at Washington Reagan National airport after the flight. It was a milestone in that regulators lined up to allow the flight with passengers onboard, and the carrier was able to source 500 gallons of the fuels, he said.
The latter — the supply of SAF — is arguably the biggest challenge facing the widespread adoption of sustainable fuels. Despite years of research, offtake agreements and even equity investments, the airline industry is only slightly closer to widespread use of low-emission fuels than it was when Virgin Atlantic flew the first biofuel blend-powered flight in 2008.
Trade group the International Air Transport Associati
