There is probably no airline in the world anymore that hasn’t sustainability as a top priority in its strategy, but few airlines are having such a diverse approach to the topic as United Airlines. Yes, sustainable aviation fuels (SAF) take up more than half of the target to reduce carbon emissions and get to net zero in 2050, but look at what United has more: full electric with eVTOLs and airplanes, hydrogen, and even supersonic. AirInsight talked to Chief Sustainability Officer, Lauren Riley, to find out how this all fits into the strategy. Insight - United Airlines' net zero strategy. United is committed to reducing carbon emissions by fifty percent in 2035 and to net zero in 2050. There is no question that SAF will be the most important element of decarbonizing aviation, says Lauren Riley: “We all recognize that sustainable aviation fuel for the majority of aircraft that we have in the skies today is the solution. The benefit is that we can use it today in the infrastructure. We have aircraft that will fly for thirty years, we have fueling tanks and infrastructure at airports that we need to work with, not against. So finding a solution that is drop-in and can be used with the assets we have today is really paramount. So yes, SAF will be the majority of the solution for United Airlines.” United is a frontrunner when it comes to SAF. It invested $30 million in Fulcrum BioEnergy back in 2015, has uptake contracts with World Energy for five million gallons this year, with Neste for twenty million gallons for 2023, and Alder Fuels for 1.5 billion from September 2025. But the five million gallons used this year compare marginally to United’s total fuel requirements of four billion gallons. Going to twenty million next year is already a significant step: “By comparison, in 2020 we used one million gallons of SAF, so going to 20 million in 2023 is huge.” Last December, it operated the first flight on 100-percent SAF in the US. Lauren RIley, United's Chief Sustainability Officer. (United Airlines) Industry stakeholders like IATA are critical of the slow pace at which SAF production is growing. Only 0.1 percent of all fuel used last year was SAF as supplies are lagging behind, says IATA, while Sustainable Aero Lab has calculated this to be only 0.05 percent. Riley takes the contract with Fulcrum as an example of the slow pace: “United invested in Fulcrum BioEnergy in 2015. They just turned on to produce fuel for ground vehicles this year, so it has been seven years! That’s not OK, we need to accelerate. Our investments are intended to help, not just that we demand the fuel but that we put our dollars to help address some of those developing milestones that tend to cause delays.” At the ICAO Assembly in early October, the final resolution included initiatives to increase SAF production through a range of options. The US is adopting tax-credit incentives while the European Union prefers mandates. Riley thinks the US is doing very well. “In the US, we have a three billion gallon target for 2030. We are working hard with our colleagues in government and across the industry and value chain to make sure we hit that target. This will be a tipping point for US industry at least to hit some production milestones so that we scale the market. But I don’t have the numbers for the coming years, as you know that the production of SAF is constantly delayed. One of the biggest challenges is finding ways to de-risk investments in SAF for producers so that they can move from shovel in the ground to production in a much faster capacity.” SAF is now a very present topic But things are moving, Riley notes: “Just three years ago, nobody was talking about SAF. Now, we talk about it in the board room, with the media, with corporate partners, and with our investors. This is a very present topic. (…) I think we are going to see in the 2025-2026 timeframe some of the new producers actually coming online sooner and producing on a commercial scale. If this will be enough to meet the four billion gallons that United alone demand? It is not. Worldwide, there will be insufficient supply for quite some time now, but we are working hard not just to accelerate the timeline but then get some new production online.” United used pure SAF on a flight with passengers in December 2021. The airline has an uptake agreement with Neste for twenty million gallons of SAF in 2023. (United Airlines) Whether the US tax credit system works better than Europe’s mandates in Europe? “There are tax credits for SAF and others for hydrogen and carbon capture in the US Inflation Reduction Act. I really do think they will work. The question about carrots and sticks really needs to be a combination of both. I will take as much SAF as there is available, I don’t need a mandate for that here in the US. What we do need more is supply. Carrot and stick all trying to drive production and I fully support that intention.” And there is not just demand for SAF with airlines, but also with customers. Through the Eco Skies Alliance, United’s corporate partners funded 7.1 million gallons of SAF in 2021, despite the fuel being two to four times more expensive than Jet A fuel. Electric Then there is electric. United Airlines will adopt electric on two fronts: eVTOLs and all-electric passenger aircraft. The airline recently announced a conditional purchase agreement for 200 Eve Urban Air Mobility aircraft plus 200 options and made a $15 million down payment to the Embraer offspring. United also made a $10 million pre-delivery payment to Archer for 100 Midnights vehicles, of which a new version will be unveiled on November 16. United has orders for 200 Embraer Eve's (picture) and 100 Archer Midnights to enter a whole new market. (Embraer) Advanced Air Mobility is part of United’s net zero strategy as well as a new transportation mode that the airline is keen to use: “They are both. What’s so cool about what’s happening right now in the dialogue around sustainability is that it is sustainability and… It used to be sustainability as its own driver, but now it is becoming so core to the way aviation looks at technological developments, customer experience, and how it wants to differentiate. It’s right in the middle of all of that.” “eVTOLs are actually an extension of our service today. We don’t take you from downtown Hollywood to LAX today, but we could if we had an eVTOL. Frankly, it would be a lower carbon footprint than an Uber XL, and the price tag would be similar. If we can make it an and, and, and, that would be really exciting for our customers and for the planet.” The other electric transportation mode is passenger aircraft. In September, United confirmed its 2021 order for 100 Heart Aerospace hybrid-electric ES-30s plus fifty options, with its regional partner Mesa Airlines ordering the same number. They are for the redesigned Heart, which has grown to a 30-seater after some customers – including United - thought the original 19-seater was too small. The bigger ES-30 will fly on battery power but uses turbogenerators running on SAF to extend the range. Expect to see the Hearts on United’s regional network. “Today, we fly commuter aircraft between Washington DC and New York City, and Newark. That would be a perfect route for us. It is the right distance, the technology can support it, and if we have the mainframe with the right amount of seating to reflect demand, that would be a great application of it. If it will be used on new routes or as a replacement, I actually don’t know, but it will probably be a combination of both.” The hybrid-electric Heart ES-30s will find their way on the regional network. (Heart Aerospace) Riley acknowledges that electric flying will need to tick some boxes: “We need to demonstrate that the battery technology itself can carry the capacity of that aircraft. There are infrastructure challenges relating to the charging of it. Today, there is a massive assumption that we will have access to renewable power in the US and other global economies to make charging of that aircraft actually low-carbon. So this is all predicating on a renewable power sector that doesn’t exist at scale. We have some time to figure out the right size of aircraft until we can achieve the environmental benefits deriving from these electric aircraft.” Hydrogen The first Hearts should enter service in 2028. That’s the same year when certification is expected of the hydrogen-electric ZeroAvia system that will be included on converted Mitsubishi CRJs. In December 2021, United Airlines Ventures announced a $35 million equity investment in ZeroAvia and signed a purchase agreement for fifty hydrogen-electric fuel cell systems. Not only is hydrogen seen as the solution to full decarbonization of aviation, but converting the CRJs is also a way to extend the useful life of these airplanes, says Riley: “We purchase aircraft that go to the sky for 30 years. Essentially, we have a fixed asset that we are trying to make more sustainable. ZeroAvia is a retrofit. You take the existing engine off and put a new engine on, so we can fly that aircraft for the duration it was intended to fly. That’s really exciting to me.” Hydrogen is not without challenges, says Riley: “I know there are some technological hurdles out there, I know there is an infrastructure hurdle there. I know pure hydrogen-powered aircraft at large are getting challenges, they need designated infrastructure to enable hydrogen at the airport. Not all of that is insurmountable, it is just a matter of time.” Converting its Mitsubishi CRJs to hydrogen-electric is a smart way to extend the life of existing aircraft while making them net-zero. (United Airlines) United collaborates with Airbus on the ZEROe hydrogen aircraft project but has no immediate intention to become an early adopter like easyJet wants to be. There are too many uncertainties around hydrogen. “The application for mainline is unclear at this point in time. I would like to see us continue our push in these emerging pathways for SAF but we are keeping a keen eye on electric and hydrogen. We will continue to invest across the board. We expect some technologies to fail. That’s totally fine, because we can afford that.” Boom Overture In June 2021, United surprised a few when not only it announced a bumper order for 270 Boeing MAX and Airbus A321neo aircraft, but also signed a conditional purchase agreement with Boom Supersonic for fifteen Overtures plus 35 options. Since then, United has confirmed its commitment to the revised Overture that was unveiled at the Farnborough Airshow this year. Overture is designed to fly on 100-percent SAF when it is supposed to enter service in 2029-2030, providing it secures itself an engine supplier. But even using pure SAF, many hardly perceive Overture and supersonic flight as sustainable. Yet, it fits into United’s sustainability agenda, says Lauren Riley. Flying on 100-percent SAF makes the supersonic Boom Overture sustainable, says United. (Boom Supersonic) “Innovation and evolution of the travel experience will continue. We want to present our customers with the right kind of service, to enhance the customer experience. My commitment on behalf of United is to make sure that those innovations are a step forward, with sustainability upfront and center”. Riley continues: “What we are seeing with supersonic is that, while it will consume more sustainable aviation fuel, it is designed to run on sustainable aviation fuel. And that is paramount. What I don’t want is supersonic without SAF, that would be a real detriment. Our commitment is to really drive forward these innovations like supersonic with sustainability at the core of the decisions being made around how it actually is going to be operated. If there is enough sustainable aviation fuel to put on that jet to fly it more responsibly than the alternative, I can buy that. The best outcome here is to drive the supply of SAF. It shouldn’t be an either/or discussion, all aircraft should be flying on sustainable aviation fuel. I am hopeful that there is an opportunity for all aircraft to use SAF in 2030.” Carbon capture Longer term, Riley is convinced that the airline industry should adopt another net-zero technology: carbon capture. In this technology, carbon dioxide is captured from the air and used through very complex technical processes to make ‘green’ hydrogen. United has a partnership with 1PointFive, a US direct company that is also partnering with Airbus on a carbon capture offset scheme in which various airlines participate. “I do believe that we will need carbon capture. United has been very clear that we support this technology. Stay tuned for more news”, says Lauren Riley. “My personal view is that the future of flying will be power-to-liquid, capturing the CO2 out of the atmosphere and turning it into fuel. There is a tremendous amount of innovation happening today in that space.” “The technology is recent, and the economics are terrible, but we are taking steps in addressing those. Here in the US, with the climate policy that came with the Inflation Reduction Act, we are seeing that the economics are beginning to pivot a little bit. That’s a really, really step forward.”
