Written by: Dakota Grossman

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Multiple airlines that use Kahului Airport are trying to reduce their biggest contributor of greenhouse gas emissions, jet fuel, by using a more environmentally-friendly source of fuel.

Carriers will be relying on and investing in sustainable aviation fuel over the next few decades, which, according to the U.S. Department of Energy, has a life-cycle carbon intensity 50 to 80 percent lower than conventional jet fuel. Sustainable aviation fuel is made of renewable biomass and waste resources.

Hawaiian Airlines, which offers about 150 daily flights interisland as well as between Maui and the Mainland, announced last month more details of its plan to achieve net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050, using sustainable aviation fuel as one of the stepping stones.

The airline said March 23 that it had reached an agreement with biofuel company Gevo Inc. to purchase 50 million gallons of the sustainable fuel over five years. Gevo expects to supply the fuel from a facility that will be constructed in the Midwestern U.S. and begin deliveries to Hawaiian’s gateway cities in California starting in 2029, according to a news release. The fuel would be made from residual starch from inedible field corn.

The International Air Transport Association estimates that sustainable aviation fuel could contribute around 65 percent of the reduction in emissions needed by aviation to reach a net-zero goal by 2050, but “this will require a massive increase in production in order to meet demand,” according to its website.

In 2022, over 300 million liters of sustainable aviation fuel were produced, and more than 50 airlines now have experience with this type of fuel, according to IATA, which serves as the trade association for about 300 airlines, or 83 percent of total air traffic.

“There was at least triple the amount of SAF in the market in 2022 than in 2021,” Willie Walsh, IATA’s director general, said in a news release last year. “And airlines used every drop, even at very high prices. If more was available, it would have been purchased.”

The international organization said it is possible to replace almost all fossil jet fuel with sustainable aviation fuel over the coming decades if airlines and governments worldwide get on board.

The International Council on Clean Transportation, an independent nonprofit, said in a news release in January that there is still some “sluggish progress” in airlines switching to green energy fuel, which is the result of concerns over biofuels and high costs — sustainable aviation fuel was estimated to be two to five times the 2019 price of conventional jet fuel.

This year, economic fuel costs per gallon are anticipated to average between $2.90 to $3 per gallon for Southwest Airlines, according to the company’s 2022 fourth quarter and full year investor report released in January.

Southwest, which currently offers up to 24 departures a day from Kahului Airport to 10 cities across Hawaii and the Mainland, is still taking on a similar green initiative as Hawaiian Airlines despite the costs.

Southwest spokesperson Laura Swift said Tuesday that “our goal is to achieve carbon neutrality by 2050.”

In October 2021, the carrier released a 10-year plan to make progress on that goal this decade, which includes replacing 10 percent of Southwest’s total jet fuel consumption with sustainable aviation fuel by 2030, as well as reducing its carbon emissions per available seat mile by at least 20 percent (compared with 2019) by 2030 through fleet modernization, route optimization and other initiatives.

“At Southwest, we take pride in being the airline with Heart and that includes respecting our planet,” Swift said.

When asked if increased uses of sustainable aviation fuel, a more expensive alternative, would impact plane ticket prices, Swift said, “with pricing being a regulated topic, we aren’t permitted to talk about current or future fares in specific terms.”

For Hawaiian, it doesn’t seem like fuel costs will affect prices for travelers. Spokesperson Alex Da Silva said Tuesday afternoon that “our sustainability goals are separate from how we set our fares, which are primarily driven by supply and demand.”

Last year, Hawaiian Airlines used about 239.2 million gallons of fuel at an average cost per gallon of $3.42, with fuel costs making up 28.7 percent of the company’s operating expenses, according to the airline’s 2022 annual report.

Other carriers that service Kahului Airport that are switching to sustainable aviation fuel include Alaska Airlines, which announced on March 23 an agreement with Shell Aviation to supply up to 10 million gallons of sustainable aviation fuel to the airline at their hub in Los Angeles.

Alaska currently operates an average of eight daily flights to Maui.

An Alaska Airlines spokesperson told The Maui News on Wednesday that “our most significant environmental goals are focused on reducing greenhouse gas emissions generated from burning fuel — especially carbon dioxide — which science has shown has an impact on our climate.” 

The carrier has also made orders for new, more energy-efficient aircraft as well as invested in zero emissions technology and artificial intelligence to fly more efficient routes.

“Alaska Airlines has set our course to net zero by 2040 and sustainable aviation fuels represent the greatest near-term opportunity to make a step-level change on that journey,” Diana Birkett Rakow, senior vice president for public affairs and sustainability, said in a news release announcing the deal with Shell Aviation. “That’s why we’ve pioneered SAF technologies for more than a decade. But we can’t scale the market alone.”

United Airlines, another operator at Kahului Airport, also announced last week an investment of $15 million in a carbon-capture technology company called Svante, which provides eco-friendly materials and technology to produce sustainable aviation fuel.

The airline last year signed an agreement with Neste to buy up to 52.5 million gallons of sustainable aviation fuel over the next three years for flights at Amsterdam’s Schiphol Airport, and potentially other airports. It aims to reach a net zero energy goal by 2050 and has invested in the future production of over 3 billion gallons of sustainable aviation fuel, which it says is the most of any airline in the world.

“Carbon capture technology has the potential to be a critical solution in the fight to stop climate change and has the added benefit of helping us scale the production of SAF,” United CEO Scott Kirby said in a news release on March 29. “And at United we’re building on that approach by investing in both companies that can capture (carbon dioxide) and others that can turn it into fuel.”