Heathrow is making £86 million to airlines through a sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) incentive scheme this year.
The London hub is targeting 3% of aviation fuel used at Heathrow to be SAF – amounting to 187,000 tonnes.
The incentive, to encourage airlines to support a swap to cleaner fuels, is 1% above the UK government mandate which came into effect on January 1.
The scheme encourages airlines to switch to SAF by approximately halving the price gap between kerosene and its cleaner alternative, making SAF more commercially viable for airlines.
The project aims to reduce lifecycle carbon emissions from flights by more than 500,000 tonnes – equivalent to over 800,0003 economy class passenger returns from Heathrow to New York JFK.
The 2025 incentive aims to align with Heathrow’s target to be 1% above the UK mandate in 2030 to achieve 11% SAF use at the airport.
Integrating SAF into the fuel supply is a “crucial step” in the airport’s journey towards achieving net-zero carbon emissions by 2050.
Director of carbon strategy Matt Gorman said: “Sustainable Aviation Fuel is no longer a future promise – it’s a proven solution that is powering flights worldwide.
“Our SAF incentive scheme, part of our ‘Connecting People and Planet’ sustainability strategy, has made significant progress and we’re now exploring options to set a long-term incentive signal to 2030.
“We are delighted that government has moved so quickly to legislate the SAF mandate.
“We must now accelerate legislation for the SAF revenue certainty mechanism to ensure we can build a domestic industry that will help decarbonise and drive economic growth.”