CORPORATE BOOK-ANDCLAIM FOR SAF IS THE FL AVOUR OF THE DAY

There’s one very obvious problem around the next-generation aircraft we talked about in the previous section – distance.

They might work on a transfer from Manhattan to JFK (using an eVTOL), or San Diego to Los Angeles (using an aircraft like the Alice), but there is currently no non-fossil-fuel powered executive jet in production that will take Elon Musk or Bill Gates halfway around the world.

Here, sustainable aviation fuel is the only realistic decarbonisation solution, for now anyway. Some aircraft manufacturers, like Gulfstream, have run 100% SAF test flights and are working towards certification.

But that process will probably take at the very least two years to come to fruition. As a result, there are so-called ‘book-and-claim’ systems in operation for the corporate travel market.

A quantity of SAF is purchased equivalent to the amount of fuel used in the aircraft. The analogy is that the system works much like renewable energy tariffs in the electricity sector.

The homes themselves buying into the tariff are not directly powered by wind or solar power; instead, they pay for an equivalent amount of renewable energy to be put into the grid.

One of the biggest book-and-claim systems is called Avelia. It was established in the Summer of 2022 by Shell, Accenture and American Express Global Business Travel, which Nora Lovell Marchant shared on our podcast.

Similarly, SAF provider SkyNRG also offers a book-and-claim system and has a coalition of corporates on board through an initiative called Board Now. This includes Microsoft, Skyscanner, PwC and Bank of America.