Gevo has signed a new fuel sales agreement with American Airlines that sets forth the terms for the sale of 100 million gallons per year of sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) for five years from Gevo’s future commercial operations. Gevo’s delivery of SAF under this agreement is expected to begin in 2026. Gevo estimates that the agreement should generate approximately $2.75 billion of revenue over the five-year term, inclusive of the value of environmental benefits. The Agreement with American Airlines is the single, largest fuel sales agreement ever entered into by Gevo with a customer.
American Airlines is a member of oneworld global alliance (oneworld), and this agreement falls under the purview of memoranda of understanding (MoU) that oneworld members and Gevo signed earlier in 2022, laying the groundwork for the 14 airlines in the alliance to purchase 200 million gallons of SAF per year, from Gevo’s future commercial operations. This SAF purchase agreement expands the list of committed airline partners and supports Gevo’s pursuit of its stated goal of producing and commercializing a billion gallons of SAF by 2030.
“The expansion of the global development of the SAF marketplace has reached an exciting point,” said Dr. Patrick R. Gruber, Gevo’s Chief Executive Officer. “While there is a tremendous amount of work to complete to bring all the critical elements of net-zero carbon SAF to the marketplace, our memoranda of understanding with oneworld alliance members and this subsequent commitment from American Airlines demonstrates the important momentum that is building for these types of products. I’m thrilled that Gevo is poised to continue to provide leadership for this product development.”
In September 2020, oneworld became the first global airline alliance to announce a target of carbon neutrality by 2050, establishing its commitment to long-term sustainability for the industry. The alliance followed up that commitment with an intermediate goal to achieve 10% SAF use across the member airlines by 2030.
“Today’s announcement is a historic step forward for American and our industry as we work to reduce our carbon footprint,” said Jill Blickstein, American’s Vice President of Sustainability. “The use of SAF is a cornerstone of our strategy to decarbonize air travel. While this landmark investment represents meaningful action by American Airlines, driving progress at the scale and pace we need requires critical policy action in Washington and at the State level. Alongside our oneworld partners, we’re proud to lead the way in the shift to SAF and make progress toward our shared climate goals.”