All Nippon Airways (ANA), Japan's largest 5-Star airline for seven consecutive years, received its latest passenger aircraft from the United States (US) via a delivery flight that was conducted using a blend of jet fuel and sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) on October 30, 2019. The brand new Boeing 777-300ER was flown from Boeing's facility in Everett, Washington to Japan, utilizing SAF made from LanzaTech'waste gas derived ethanol for the trans-Pacific flight.
According to All Nippon Airways (ANA), the success of this flight is an encouraging confirmation of ANA’s efforts to continue pushing for greater sustainability and alternative fuel sources across all of its business ventures.
ANA worked closely with LanzaTech, the producer of the ethanol derived sustainable aviation fuel (SAF), to inspect the fuel’s quality as well as ensure transport and blending the fuel for loading onto the aircraft.
We are very excited by the success of the delivery flight, not just because we have added a new aircraft to our fleet but also because it represents an important milestone in our efforts to establish higher standards for ecologically conscious travel. Our decision to prioritize the use of sustainable aviation fuels closely aligns with our vision of a world where companies proactively respond to calls for environmentally-friendly leadership. This important flight provides the insight we need to increase the use of alternative energy sources and is just one of many steps ANA is taking to meet the ambitious sustainable development goals that we have set, said Yutaka Ito, Executive Vice President of ANA.
This is not the first time that ANA has utilized SAF.
At the start of 2019, the airline purchased 70 000 US gallons of SAF from World Energy Inc., via Showa Shell Sekiyu K.K that was used on commercial flights from San Francisco to Tokyo, leading to a reduction of its carbon footprint. In June 2019, ANA signed an offtake agreement with LanzaTech, allowing it to purchase SAF.
Develop SAF in Japan
The company was also selected by the New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization (NEDO) – a prominent Japanese public research and development body – to develop integrated production technology for sustainable aviation fuel and bring it to market.
ANA was chosen after a comprehensive review process to conduct studies on the production and commercialization of LanzaTech’s sustainable aviation fuel and will work alongside Mitsui & Co., Ltd and JXTG Energy to achieve these goals.
ANA and its partners will work together to construct a supply chain for sustainable aviation fuel as part of a process that is aiming to achieve large-scale commercial production of sustainable aviation fuel in Japan with ANA providing detailed research on the impact of fuels developed through this partnership.
By working with NEDO and others to develop and implement sustainable aviation fuel, ANA hopes to enhance the quality of fuel used in its aircraft as part of its sustained efforts to become the most eco-friendly airline group in the world.
The success of this delivery flight is the company says a “major step toward full-scale SAF use in the future” and a “symbol of ANA’s commitment to acting as a responsible environmental steward.”
