Given Neste’s expertise in renewable fuels and its fast-growing production capacity of SAF, Avfuel chose Neste as its strategic partner in January 2021 to develop an efficient and continuous supply of Neste MY Sustainable Aviation FuelTM throughout North America and overseas. Such a collaboration enables business aviation to achieve its sustainability goals faster by getting more SAF into aircraft. More than 1 million gallons of blended Neste MY Sustainable Aviation Fuel has been supplied since the partnership began.
Business aviation is an integral component of the aviation industry as a whole. It enables business leaders and policy makers to travel and work collaboratively; lives to be saved by transporting vital medical equipment, transplants and patients around the world; crops to be grown and transported across borders; people to enjoy cultural activities; people to access remote communities; and so much more.
As a thriving subset of the transportation system, operators are increasingly finding SAF is an essential asset to immediately reduce life-cycle greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, helping to reach business aviation’s lofty net-zero goals by 2050.
Avfuel established SAF as a foundational piece of its sustainability portfolio, alongside developing a voluntary carbon offset program that helps the company and its customers achieve net-zero by investing in green projects, and a book and claim program to make the benefits of SAF more widely accessible for those who run operations in locations without access to the physical SAF molecules.
The challenge, however, was to find a company able to provide SAF in commercial volumes.
With Neste’s fast-growing SAF production capacity within North America and Avfuel’s global distribution expertise, it was easy for the companies to see the value in a mutually-beneficial partnership.
Neste’s goal of supporting its customers to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions perfectly aligns with Avfuel’s commitment in promoting environmentally responsible operations at each of its properties and for its customers.
With the commencement of the partnership, Avfuel became one of the first U.S. companies to supply select customers with SAF on a consistent basis. Today, Avfuel holds regular inventory of Neste MY Sustainable Aviation Fuel at 9 FBOs. Together, Avfuel and Neste enable business aviation to fly with a smaller carbon footprint, helping to accelerate its adoption throughout the industry.
“We’re very pleased to be at the forefront of efforts to mitigate the environmental footprint of aviation operators around the globe,” said Matthew Wright, general manager of Monterey Jet Center. “Our collaboration with the Monterey Regional Airport, Neste and Avfuel [was] long in development. To do our part in leading the way for the future of aviation fuel was important to us so that we could actually make a difference for future generations, and offer flight departments and operators a real pathway for decreasing their impact on the environment.”
A joint responsibility
Neste and Avfuel are committed to accelerating the transformation of the supply chain powering business aviation—moving away from petroleum-based jet fuel by increasing the available supply of SAF.
Whenever establishing a new location, Avfuel works closely with Neste to map out the entire supply chain to ensure all regulations for transporting and blending the fuel are met, and to handle the logistics of its distribution. Neste helps Avfuel ensure a seamless transition, from sourcing the SAF, to transporting the fuel in its neat form and blending the product.
Avfuel’s customers rely on it to supply quality, on-spec fuel. It is the biggest and most important element of its brand value; Neste helps ensure that, together, they deliver on-spec fuel 100% of the time.
Flying more sustainably
With solutions used to support more than 650 branded FBOs in North America and Europe, as well as approximately 25 locations operating as a proprietary network of FBOs within the Avfuel family, Avfuel’s scope of operations is exhaustive.
In further expansion of its global reach, Avfuel can service customers traveling to 3,000+ fueling locations worldwide with its contract fuel program. With Avfuel’s international reach, and Neste’s fast-growing global SAF supply chain spanning three continents, this partnership marks a crucial step in accelerating the transition to low-emission fuels and helping the aviation industry reach its climate goals.
Since the partnership began, Avfuel has delivered more than 1,200,000 gallons of blended Neste MY SAF. As demand for low-carbon fuel options continues to ramp up, Avfuel expects to increase delivery capacity and expand access to Neste MY SAF.
Through the partnership between Neste and Avfuel, Dallas Fort Worth International Airport (DFW), the second busiest airport in the world, became the first airport in the U.S. to implement a circular economy fuel model.
