Airbus Canada Rolls Out Sustainable Aviation Fuel

The first sustainable aviation fuels (SAF) delivery recently took place at the Airbus Canada's A220 site, enabling the Mirabel teams, in Quebec, to use SAF for production, customer acceptance and test flights. This now means that all Airbus commercial aircraft assembly sites around the world are now using sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) for their internal operations.

During the course of 2025, all Airbus commercial aircraft delivery centers around the world will offer SAF to customers for ferry flights. This year alone, in 2025, over 600,000 l of SAF with a 30% blend are expected to be used at the Airbus Mirabel site resulting in a reduction in CO2 emissions of around 400 t.

“On average, SAF can reduce CO2 emissions by up to 80% compared to traditional jet fuel. This substantial reduction is crucial to the industry's progress towards decarbonisation by 2050. It's a big milestone to now have our Mirabel site in Canada, as SAF capable as our other Airbus sites. It not only means we can test our A220 aircraft using SAF, but we will also be able to deliver them to our customers with SAF too,” said Benoît Schultz, CEO Airbus Canada.

In 2024, 18% of Airbus global fuel mix for the year was SAF. That's more than 16 million l of neat SAF. Alongside this, 75% of Airbus aircraft worldwide were delivered with SAF, representing also the importance our customers are placing on decarbonization.

Management of SAF in Mirabel will be done using the mass balance principle. Once the SAF has been transported and delivered to Airbus Canada, it is blended with the conventional aviation fuel (CAF) also known as Jet-A1 in the Mirabel site's fuel farm. The dilution of CAF and SAF in the fuel tanks is allowed through established standards and auditable bookkeeping. Airbus Canada has the ambition to deliver SAF Proof of Sustainability (PoS) to A220 customers receiving their aircraft from Mirabel in 2025. SAF has been used in A220 aircraft delivered from Airbus’ A220 Mobile Final Assembly Line since 2016.

As with all Airbus aircraft, the A220 is already able to operate with up to 50% Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF). Airbus aims for all its aircraft to be capable of operating with up to 100% SAF by 2030.

The Airbus site in Mirabel is over 140 000 m2 and includes, among others, a pre-final assembly line (pre-FAL), 2 final assembly lines (FAL), a customer response centre (CRC), a flight and integration test centre (FITC), and a brand new delivery centre. Over 3,500 Airbus employees work at this location.

Source: Airbus

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