Boeing, Airbus and Embraer recently signed a memorandum of understanding to work together on the development of drop-in, affordable aviation biofuels. The three leading airframe manufacturers agreed to seek collaborative opportunities to speak in unity to government, biofuel producers and other key stakeholders to support, promote and accelerate the availability of sustainable new jet fuel sources.
Boeing Commercial Airplanes President and CEO Jim Albaugh, Airbus president and CEO Tom Enders, and Embraer Commercial Aviation president Paulo César Silva, signed the agreement at the Air Transport Action Group (ATAG) Aviation and Environment
Summit in Geneva last month. “There are times to compete and
there are times to cooperate,” said Jim Albaugh. “Two of the biggest threats to our industry are the price of oil and the impact of commercial air travel on ourenvironment. By working with Airbus
and Embraer on sustainable biofuels, we can accelerate their availability and reduce our industry’s impacts on the
planet we share.”
“We’ve achieved a lot in the last ten years in reducing our industry’s CO2 footprint – a 45 per cent traffic growth with only three per cent more fuel consumption,” added Enders. ”The
production and use of sustainable quantities of aviation biofuels is key to meeting our industry’s ambitious CO2 reduction targets and we are helping to do this through Research and Technology
our expanding network of worldwide value chains and supporting the EU commission towards its target of four per cent of biofuel for aviation by 2020.”
“We are all committed to take a leading role in the development
of technology programmes that will facilitate aviation biofuels development and actual application faster than if we were doing it independently,” said Paulo César Silva. “Few people know that Brazil’s well known automotive biofuels programme started within our aeronautical research community, back in the seventies, and we will keep on making history.”
The collaboration agreement supports the industry’s multi-pronged
approach to continuously reduce the industry’s carbon emissions.
Continuous innovation, spurred by competitive market dynamics that push each manufacturer to continuously improve product performance, and air traffic modernisation, are other critical
elements to achieving carbon-neutral growth beyond 2020 and halving industry emissions by 2050 based on 2005 levels.
All three companies are affiliate members of the Sustainable Aviation Fuel Users Group which includes 23 leading airlines
responsible for approximately 25 per cent of annual aviation fuel use.
