Southwest Airlines launched a new, innovative option for eligible corporate customers looking to support sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) called the SAF Beta Program. As a part of this Program, the eligible corporate customers are allowed to support the scaling of the still emerging SAF industry by purchasing the customer Scope 3 SAF claims associated with the utilization of SAF in Southwest’s operations.
Eligible corporate customers can purchase customer SAF claims and/or carbon offsets directly within Southwest Business Assist from CHOOOSE. This new option greatly increases the number of customers who will now be eligible to make customer SAF claims purchases through Southwest
Customer SAF Claims are the Scope 3 Category 6 (Business Travel) rights associated with Southwest’s utilization of SAF in its operations
Southwest first announced the SAF Beta Program in October 2021.
"We are hearing from more and more corporate customers that SAF is an important part of their decarbonization plans for business travel. We are excited to evolve our offerings to help meet this demand and allow more corporate customers to participate," said Helen Giles, managing director environmental sustainability, Southwest Airlines. "Our valued corporate customers have supported Southwest's use of SAF in our operations, and we continue to recognize the importance of bringing them along in our environmental sustainability journey."
The sustainability claim or attribute purchased is separated from the physical flow of the fuel.
In part, this is because when blended with conventional jet fuel in accordance with industry standards, SAF is a certified drop-in fuel and is delivered within existing fueling infrastructure.
While this helps save on capital investment required for infrastructure and enables airlines to receive deliveries of SAF in the most economically efficient locations, this also makes it difficult to trace the actual SAF molecules to a particular flight.
Instead, SAF and the associated environmental attributes are tracked based off how much neat SAF was purchased and delivered to an airline operator, and corporate customers can purchase customer SAF claims associated with the SAF even if they are in a different place than where the SAF is utilized by Southwest.
There is still work to be done for the industry to establish the processes and mechanisms needed for a robust, credible, and transparent SAF Claims market at scale.
Southwest is participating in these efforts and is proud to offer opportunities for direct transactions with eligible corporate Customers to support Southwest’s use of SAF.
The platform allows for the purchase of carbon offsets alongside or independent of customer SAF Claims, from a selected portfolio of projects including the Delta Blue Carbon mangrove restoration project.