Regional aircraft leasing specialist NAC is to collaborate with ATR and TotalEnergies to provide a blend of 30% sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) to be used for one in five deliveries of new ATR aircraft to NAC: equivalent to a 6% SAF blend on the first leg of each ferry flight from 2023.
The first airline to benefit from the incentive was regional Philippine airline AirSwift, which received a new ATR 72-600 from NAC Skyline on 27 November. “We are very pleased… that we will be the first customer in Southeast Asia to use SAF for our initial delivery flight,” noted Alfonso Reyes, CEO of AirSwift, adding his hope that “greater investment in this space will create the momentum necessary for SAF to become more widely available on a commercial basis”.
Highlighting “how much customers are demanding tangible solutions to reduce emissions,” Nathalie Tarnaud Laude, ATR’s CEO, added: “As a manufacturer, all our efforts in terms of technology and innovation are going in that direction, leveraging a highly efficient platform”. As the first to fly a commercial aircraft with 100% SAF in both engines, ATR also remains “convinced that sustainable aviation fuels will play a critical role in the decarbonisation of air transport both in the short and long-term”.