Airbus and partners invest in Sustainable Aviation Fuel financing fund

FILE PHOTO: A Beluga transport plane belonging to Airbus is pictured in Colomiers near Toulouse, France, September 26, 2017. REUTERS/Regis Duvignau

Airbus, the Air France-KLM Group, Associated Energy Group, LLC, BNP Paribas, Burnham Sterling, Mitsubishi HC Capital Inc. and Qantas Airways Limited co-invested in a Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF) financing fund to accelerate the production of SAF.

The corporate partners worked with investment manager Burnham Sterling Asset Management to establish the Sustainable Aviation Fuel Financing Alliance (SAFFA) investment fund in which Airbus is the Anchor Investor. The commitment from the seven partners is amounting to an aggregate of approx. US$200 million.

Each partner brings experience and financial expertise to the fund with the ambition to accelerate the availability of SAF by investing mainly in technologically mature SAF-producing projects using for instance waste-based feedstocks. Investments will be diversified across various SAF production pathways and also by region.

Each partner may then enter into priority contracts to secure SAF offtakes from the various projects SAFFA will invest in, for its allocated volumes. SAFFA is focusing on SAF that is eligible for RefuelEU Aviation(1) or CORSIA(2) (Carbon Offsetting and Reduction Scheme for International Aviation) certification.

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SAFFA made its first investment in Crysalis Biosciences, a tech company dedicated to renewing U.S. chemical manufacturing infrastructure with innovative fuel and chemical production technologies.

The company’s recent accomplishments include the acquisition and renovation of the Monarch facility, an ethanol plant located in Sauget, Illinois, USA, which was shuttered in 2019.

As of the first quarter of 2024, the plant has completed the upgrades and received the necessary environmental authorizations to resume operations to produce low-carbon intensity SAF and biochemicals.

Ifeoma Okeke-Korieocha

Ifeoma Okeke-Korieocha is the Aviation Correspondent at BusinessDay Media Limited, publishers of BusinessDay Newspapers. She is also the Deputy Editor, BusinessDay Weekender Magazine, the Saturday Weekend edition of BusinessDay. She holds a BSC in Mass Communication from the prestigious University of Nigeria, Nsukka and a Masters degree in Marketing at the University of Lagos. As the lead writer on the aviation desk, Ifeoma is responsible and in charge of the three weekly aviation and travel pages in BusinessDay and BDSunday. She also overseas and edits all pages of BusinessDay Saturday Weekender. She has written various investigative, features and news stories in aviation and business related issues and has been severally nominated for award in the category of Aviation Writer of the Year by the Nigeria Media Nite-Out awards; one of the Nigeria’s most prestigious media awards ceremonies. Ifeoma is a one-time winner of the prestigious Nigeria Media Merit Award under the 'Aviation Writer of the Year' Category. She is the 2025 Eloy Award winner under the Print Media Journalist category. She has undergone several journalism trainings by various prestigious organisations. Ifeoma is also a fellow of the Female Reporters Leadership Fellowship of the Wole Soyinka Centre for Investigative Journalism.