Underscoring its environmental focus at the Singapore air show, Airbus is for the first time using sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) to power demonstration flights of its A350-1000.
Using a 35% SAF blend supplied by Shell Aviation, the A350 will perform in the show’s daily flying display from 20 to 22 February.
The A350 (F-WMIL) had flown in to Singapore from the airframer’s Toulouse base powered by blended SAF and was topped up with close an additional 13t of the fuel at Changi airport on 18 February.
This brings the total amount of blended SAF carried by the aircraft to around 21.8t. Each demonstration flight uses about 3.5t of fuel, says Airbus.
The airframer says the SAF component of the fuel was produced from a feedstock of used cooking oil and tallow. Its aircraft are currently able to operate with up to 50% SAF and it aims to reach 100% by 2030.
