IATA has announced that it will establish a SAF Registry to accelerate the uptake of Sustainable Aviation Fuels by authoritatively accounting and reporting emissions reductions from SAF.  

Seventeen airlines, one airline group, six national authorities, three Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs), and one fuel producer are already supporting the effort to develop the Registry, which is expected to launch in the first quarter of 2025. 

SAF is expected to account for up to 65% of the total carbon mitigation needed to achieve nett-zero carbon emissions in air transportation by 2050.  

“SAF is key to aviation’s decarbonisation. Airlines want more SAF and stand ready to use every drop of it. The SAF Registry will help meet the critical needs of all stakeholders as part of the global effort to ramp up SAF production. Governments need a trusted system to track the quality and quantities of SAF used. SAF producers need to accurately account for what has been delivered and effectively decarbonised.

“Corporate customers must be able to transparently account for their Scope 3 emissions. And airlines must have certainty that they can claim the environmental benefits of the SAF they purchased. The Registry will meet all these needs,” said Willie Walsh, IATA Director General.  

Walsh added that, in doing so, the Registry would help create a global SAF market by ensuring that airlines had access to SAF wherever it was produced and that SAF producers had access to airlines, regardless of their location.

Capabilities 

• Wide geographic scope: The Registry will allow airlines to purchase SAF regardless of where it is produced. Each batch’s certified environmental attributes can be tracked and assigned to the purchasing airline. By ensuring that the environmental attributes of SAF are properly recorded and transferred between parties, airlines and their customers can report emissions reductions accurately, aligning with any reporting obligations and international standards.  
• Broad application and neutrality: The Registry will be neutral with respect to regulations, types of SAF, and any other specificities under relevant jurisdictions and frameworks, making it capable of handling all such user requirements. As the initiator, IATA is working with certification organisations and fuel producers to standardise data for efficient processing.  
• Regulatory compliance: The Registry will help airlines meet regulations such as the Carbon Offsetting Reduction Scheme for International Aviation and the EU Emissions Trading Scheme, ensuring compliance with SAF mandates and providing transparency to authorities regarding emissions reductions.  

The Registry will ensure that the sector’s agreed SAF accounting and reporting principles are adhered to and fully in alignment with international protocols and industry best practices. It will provide safeguards against double counting and double claiming; and ensure the immutability and integrity of all interventions under the Registry.  

Independent governance will ensure the system’s impartiality and robustness, and participation in the Registry will be on a cost-recovery basis to avoid adding unnecessary cost barriers to the SAF ramp-up. 

Multiple stakeholders 

The Registry is being developed in consultation with airlines, government authorities, international organisations, OEMs, fuel producers and suppliers, airports, and corporate travel management companies.  

Key and unique amongst the project’s stakeholders is the participation of governments with the specific aim of ensuring compliance with the requirements of civil aviation authorities.

Relevant authorities can swiftly validate and approve claims, update national emission inventories, and align their actions with international standards, such as those set by the International Civil Aviation Organization.  

Advanced fuel efficiency analytics solution launched

IATA has also announced the launch of IATA FuelIS, an advanced analytics solution to optimise airline fuel consumption, using aggregated and anonymised flight and fuel data.

"IATA FuelIS is a robust analytical tool for airlines to make both strategic and operational decisions to optimise fuel consumption, reduce fuel costs, and improve environmental performance. By enabling airlines to benchmark their fuel performance against aggregated industry data, airlines can understand where they excel and where they need to take action," said Nick Careen, IATA Senior Vice President Operations, Safety and Security.

Key features of FuelIS include:

• Fleet fuel efficiency assessment: The fuel efficiency of various aircraft types for different regions and times can be analysed by comparing fuel burn per Operational Tonne-Kilometre (OTK) with industry averages. 
• Airport benchmarking analysis: Fuel quantity at landing can be measured for aircraft. This can be benchmarked against the aggregated fuel quantities of all other airlines landing at the same airport. 

OEMs can also use IATA FuelIS to gauge the fuel efficiency of their aircraft or engines against industry averages, gaining valuable insights into specific markets, regions, countries, and fleet types based on real operational data and helping their customers to use their products effectively.

IATA FuelIS uses data from the IATA Global Aviation Data Management system. This data is sourced from the Flight Data eXchange programme which now comprises fuel data from 215 airlines worldwide, sufficient to ensure the highest level of accuracy in the insights that can be derived. 

Fuel currently represents nearly a third of the operational expenses of an airline. Since 2005, IATA has worked with airlines to identify fuel-saving opportunities. IATA FuelIS will further support this goal.