In Conversation: Holly Boyd-Boland, Virgin Atlantic

April 20, 2023

In this week’s episode of our ‘Sustainability in the Air’ podcast, Virgin Atlantic’s VP Corporate Development and Sustainability, Holly Boyd-Boland speaks with SimpliFlying CEO Shashank Nigam and shares how the airline is preparing to conduct the historic 100% sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) flight.

You can listen and subscribe to the podcast on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Podcast Addict and Google podcasts. Or, read the full deep dive on our sustainability hub here.

Virgin Atlantic’s 100% Sustainable Aviation Fuel gambit

Here’s a preview of the episode below. You can also read a deep dive to learn how Virgin Atlantic will conduct the world’s first net zero transatlantic flight powered by 100% SAF; the potential of carbon capture technology; Virgin Atlantic’s corporate SAF programme; and their in-flight sustainability initiatives.

SAFely flying into a green future

In December 2022, Virgin Atlantic (VA) announced that it would attempt the world’s first transatlantic net zero flight run on 100% SAF. Currently, SAF is approved for use in all aircraft, but only in blends of up to 50% with conventional jet fuel. As a result, while SAF blends have been used by various airlines – including up to 100% in one engine by United and Emirates in demonstration flights – VA’s long-haul flight from London to New York is expected to be the true mould-breaker.

Boyd-Boland says the flight, preparation for which is underway in full force, is expected to fly in the fourth quarter of 2023. “Where we are in the programme now is focusing on the fuel testing and certification,” she explains. “That’s kind of the gateway for us to move from the fuel side to the engine testing and the airframe testing to get us to the right safety and regulatory approvals to operate the flight.”

The flight will be operated by one of VA’s Boeing 787 Dreamliners, powered by Rolls-Royce Trent 1000 engines. According to reports, Virgin will acquire around 60 tonnes of HEFA fuel with a 12% synthetic aromatic content, of which 45-50 tonnes will be used for the transatlantic flight and the remainder for testing and approvals purposes.

VA’s 100% SAF flight is made possible due to VA winning UK government funding of £1 million – an incentive offered under the government’s Jet Zero strategy to decarbonise aviation. The airline has put together a consortium with six partners – Boeing, Rolls-Royce, Imperial College London, University of Sheffield, ICF and Rocky Mountain Institute (RMI) – and is forming up to seven working groups for this highly challenging project.

Boyd-Boland insists that VA is steadfast in its goal of achieving net zero emissions by 2050. As a result, given the limited decarbonise levers at aviation’s disposal, SAF gains exceptional importance. “We are de facto relying on sustainable aviation fuel to deliver 40% or more of the emission reductions we need to achieve as an industry by 2050,” she explains. “And when you put that in context for VA, a long-haul only operator, then we care about SAF even more.”

In fact, VA has supported SAF for many years now – in the past year itself it has announced multiple partnerships. These include an agreement with Neste and ExxonMobil to supply SAF at London Heathrow as well as a huge agreement to purchase 70m US gallons of SAF from Gevo, in partnership with Delta Air Lines. Boyd-Boland points out that securing the supply of SAF is an important step towards the airline’s target of 10% SAF by 2030. She also empasises the airline’s industry leadership in this sphere – VA was the first airline to operate a flight on biofuel way back in 2008; in partnership with Lanzatech, the airline also operated the first commercial flight using SAF in 2018.

The historic flight later this year, says Boyd-Boland, is to demonstrate that today’s engines and airframes are capable of flying safely at 100% SAF for long-haul flights. “I think if we are successful in delivering that, then we’re moving closer to demonstrating that the technical barriers to 100% use of SAF can be overcome”, she muses. “And then we’ll need to come back to consider how to get to scaled production and supply in order to meet that requirement.”

Our Take

SAF is widely believed to be the most promising – and currently available – carbon reduction solution for the aviation industry. However, the transition to SAF has been painfully slow — it remains in short-supply and prices are exorbitantly high.

In a previous episode, Dan Rutherford from the ICCT explained that SAF production using bio-feedstock has also been linked to food security issues. Increasing SAF demand could divert food crops for its manufacturing, resulting in reduced food supply and high prices, invariably hurting the poor and marginalised. In the EU, diverting food crops to manufacture SAF has also been linked to higher import of palm oil from Southeast Asia. (Palm oil production in SE Asia is notorious for causing extensive deforestation and destruction of tropical rainforests.)

Rutherford is not alone. ZeroAvia CEO Val Miftakhov also remains sceptical, and believes that airlines’ over-reliance on SAF is ironically unsustainable. He believes there isn’t enough feedstock and that the costs of SAF production are too high to be feasible.

In such a scenario, Virgin Atlantic’s agreement to procure SAF from Air Company might offer a potential solution that does not rely on feedstock. After all, air is arguably infinite and can be mined for carbon dioxide indefinitely. However, the Power to Liquid (PtL) process has its sceptics because it is extremely energy intensive and likely to be more expensive than producing biofuels.

As Virgin Atlantic embarks on its trans-Atlantic flight later this year to demonstrate the feasibility of a 100% SAF-powered long-haul flight, a lot remains to be done to scale SAF production. Promoting SAF supply requires regulatory support and concerted efforts across the aviation industry. Even though there are notable collective efforts, systems inherently resist change. Moving away from older technologies (jet fuels) requires incentives and can take quite a bit of time to produce results.

Listen to the full episode on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Podcast Addict, Google podcasts or on our sustainability hub here. Season 3 is brought to you by our sustainability partners, Cirium and CarbonClick.