On the opening day of Sustainable Skies World Summit 2024, CEO of Virgin Atlantic Shai Weiss shared his perspective on the significance of Flight 100 and what the milestone flight represents for the wider aviation industry.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve shown what can be done. Now it\u2019s time to achieve radical collaboration and absolute action,\u201d explained Weiss, defining November 2023’s 100% sustainable aviation fuel-powered transatlantic flight as \u201ca milestone not just for Virgin Atlantic, but the industry\u201d. Despite commercially-available drop-in SAF already certified as \u2018safe\u2019, challenges abound as to how best to scale the fuel to meet ever-increasing demand.<\/p>\n
The recently announced UK government mandate (requiring the use of 10% blended SAF on all flights leaving the UK by 2030) is \u201cone that we will support, that our industry supports, because it will create the demand side that will really focus on the supply,\u201d said Weiss. Virgin Atlantic will also be participating in an ongoing government consultation surrounding price certainty mechanism. \u201cBut it\u2019s important to create the supply side. This is here in this country, creating 10,000 jobs along the way and making sure that we\u2019re not having to import this fuel from elsewhere,\u201d he continued.<\/p>\n
Elaborating on the importance of government input, Weiss elaborated that he does belief \u201cthere is a role for the government to play supporting this industry,\u201d potentially drawing on similar support in legislating and funding innovation in alternative energy industries. \u201cJust as they have gone for solar and wing, the knowledge is there, the commitments are there,\u201d he continued.<\/p>\n
However, the upcoming SAF mandate \u2013 something Virgin Atlantic is already committed to \u201cwith or without the\u00a0 government\u201d \u2013 is only one side of the discussion, Weiss elaborated, explaining that the requisite production scale up to reach 10% is about 100 times the volume of SAF currently available today. Public perception is also incredibly important in the scale-up of SAF, with Flight 100 representing \u201ca step forward to show what can be done,\u201d bringing cleaner technologies \u201cto the people in a way that can be absorbed and understood\u201d as well as inspiring excitement.<\/p>\n
\u201cAviation is crucial to this country,\u201d concluded Weiss. \u201cIt\u2019s an island nation with the ability to connect businesses, families and just allow people to travel and see the world. So we have to make a step in ensuring that aviation can be responsible and can be decarbonised\u201d.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
On the opening day of Sustainable Skies World Summit 2024, CEO of Virgin Atlantic Shai Weiss shared his perspective on the significance of Flight 100 and what the milestone flight represents for the wider aviation industry. \u201cWe\u2019ve shown what can be done. Now it\u2019s time to achieve radical collaboration and absolute action,\u201d explained Weiss, defining […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":15452,"template":"","categories":[195],"tags":[1769,1770,304,421],"class_list":["post-3461","video","type-video","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sustainability","tag-flight-100","tag-news","tag-saf","tag-virgin-atlantic"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n