In commercial aviation there are no springs or autumns. Aeronautical seasons are only summer and winter. The first goes from March to October, the second is the rest of the months and starting over. This year, during the so-called peak season for the sector, Vueling is flying on 278 routes with an average of 700 daily services. These are a total of 104 destinations in 30 different countries and of all this great aeronautical production, 62% is directly related to Barcelona Airport.
At El Prat, the market share of this IAG group company is notable: out of every 100 travelers who land or take off in Barcelona, 42 do so on one of its Airbus A319, A320 or A321. For this weighty reason, Vueling has presented at the headquarters of Foment del Treball the report on the impact of the development of sustainable fuels in Catalunya. This document considers that Catalunya is a strategic place to develop the SAF industry and a key territory in the transition towards more sustainable energy sources.
SAF is the English acronym for Sustainable Aviation Fuel or sustainable aviation fuel. According to the PwC report prepared for the airline, Catalunya is capable of leading the decarbonization of the aviation sector. The four Catalan provinces concentrate almost 10% of the waste in Spain that is considered suitable for the production of this type of gasoline. It is indicated that up to four production plants could be built by 2050. The global impact of these would be notable, as they would generate 10,640 million euros for the local GDP and, in terms of employment, the construction of these plants would translate into the creation of 41,619 new jobs.
Broadly speaking, these are the good news that the air sector would bring to Catalunya thanks to the new way of producing aircraft fuels for the coming decades. This is also a time when other propulsion alternatives (such as hydrogen and electric planes) are still under study. For now, the most viable are those of a fuel with a different composition and which, at the same time, is already compatible with the current engines used by commercial aircraft.
Between 2% and 3% of emissions
Currently, the aviation sector generates between 2% and 3% of global CO₂ emissions. To significantly reduce these figures, the industry has been working for years to find new alternatives. This is where SAF has proven to be the best medium-term option. This can be organic if produced from biomass, animal fats, vegetable oils, or agricultural waste. It can also be synthetic, generated from CO₂ capture through the use of green hydrogen.
Within seven years, all companies in the IAG group have committed that 10% of the fuel they use will be SAF. This implies that by 2030 Vueling, Iberia, British Airways, Aer Lingus, and Level will load 10 kilos of this fuel for every 90 of conventional JET A1 into their aircraft tanks. This percentage will already be double what is required by European regulation for that year.
Marco Sansavini, president and CEO of Vueling, was one of the protagonists of the event held yesterday in the historic assembly hall of Foment, at 32 Via Laietana. The Italian executive, top executive of the Barcelona-based airline since summer 2020, indicated that although his company already loads SAF on flights departing from Barcelona, it is necessary to increase its production to satisfy the general demand of the industry. Furthermore, he acknowledged that Catalunya has a great opportunity to lead its production in Europe, although this will require a public-private effort to incentivize it. He also recalled that the airline he leads has been the first low cost to use this fuel and that its use is not exceptional: SAF is supplied daily to its aircraft at El Prat Airport.
In turn, the host of the event, Josep Sanchez Llibre, emphasized the importance of leveraging the production of this new fuel as an opportunity for industrial development in Catalunya. According to the president of Foment del Treball, SAF will contribute both to the creation of wealth and employment, and to continuing to advance towards a new air transport model, a key issue for maintaining and improving Catalan competitiveness.
The keys to SAF for Catalunya
According to the PwC report, the 32,000 km² of Catalan territory are positioned as a key strategic space in the transition towards more sustainable and environmentally friendly energy sources. This potential to boost this new industry is due both to the quantity of waste suitable for SAF production (dependent on factors such as agricultural activity, agri-food, available forest area, and population factors) and to aspects such as access to renewable energy or the availability of carbon capture and utilization technologies. Finally, its pages indicate that the geographical location of Catalunya, the characteristics of its economy, and the demand generated by the aviation sector also favor the suitability of the territory to host SAF production.
Going into detail and to the maximum, the detailed document from the international consulting firm reveals that, between 2025 and 2040, the time determined for the construction phase, the impact of the execution of SAF production plants in Catalunya is estimated at a total contribution of more than 2 billion euros to GDP and nearly 40,000 direct jobs would be generated. With the four plants already in operation, these would provide 2,100 jobs and contribute to GDP by more than 8.6 billion euros in Catalunya until 2050. This figure is equivalent to 9% of the GDP of the food and beverage industries, the leading industrial sector in Catalunya, in 2019.