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Speaking on a sustainability and decarbonisation panel at a Commonwealth Bank event on Wednesday, Vanessa Hudson said Qantas is focusing on sustainable aviation fuel as part of its push to reduce carbon emissions rather than on newer technologies.
Both airports have reached level 5 carbon accreditation, which requires “maintaining a Net Zero carbon balance on Scopes 1 and 2, and actively addressing Scope 3 emissions sources”. It comes after Adelaide last December became the first major Australian airport to achieve carbon neutrality.
The airline’s first BETA ALIA CX300, N401NZ, which arrived in the country last month, has begun an “intensive proving program” from its base at Hamilton Airport before being sent south to Wellington to fly Cook Strait crossings to Blenheim by the end of January.
Paul Lindwall, who presided over the Productivity Commission’s 2019 Economic Regulation of Airports inquiry, has cast doubt on SAF’s environmental credentials, calling it in an op-ed in the Australian Financial Review “an expensive, inefficient distraction from viable alternatives”.
The BETA ALIA CX300, currently registered N401NZ, took off from Tauranga Airport on Friday morning for its inaugural test flight. It will be based in Hamilton, then move to Wellington in December for another two months.
The facility, announced last year, is operated by Wagner Sustainable Fuels in partnership with Boeing and FlyORO, and is the first SAF blending terminal in the world to be co-located with an airport. It will allow “neat” SAF to be mixed with conventional jet fuel, reducing emissions.
