4AIR

4AIR’s own Anneliese Dyer joined the National Business Aviation Association Young Professionals in Business Aviation (YoPro) in Washington DC this week to meet with members of congress and to enhance policies around long-term sustainability initiatives for the aviation industry, including promoting the production and consumption of sustainable aviation fuel (SAF). 4AIR has documented the environmental attributes of more than 11 million blended gallons of SAF and views SAF as a crucial path for the aviation industry to meet its decarbonization goals.

Ahead of EU ETS requirements to monitor and report non-CO2 emissions in 2025, we’re developing solutions to assist with and automate those monitoring requirements. Our contrail study over the past year was a major effort to better understand business aviation’s contrail and non-CO2 impact and prepare for these coming monitoring needs. Interested in learning more about these future requirements and how we can assist you? Contact us to discuss how we can support your compliance needs at www.4air.aero/contact

4AIR is excited to bring contrail reporting and mitigation opportunities to business aviation. We’ve worked over the past year to develop processes and comprehensive reporting capabilities to better understand the flight-by-flight impact of non-CO2 factors. Measuring is always the first step in mitigating, so understanding which flights are creating contrails, and when, as well as other non-CO2 impacts, is the initial step in enabling business aviation to reduce its non-CO2 impact. In addition to developing our reporting capabilities, we have worked with dispatchers to educate them on how to incorporate contrail avoidance or minimization into the flight planning process, thus unlocking fuel-saving opportunities in some cases. These efforts pave the way for contrail mitigation and operational efficiencies to become a reality in business aviation. Read more here: https://lnkd.in/esPpVdXK

PODCAST 🎙️: Earlier this week, Simon Calder welcomed our President, Kennedy Ricci on to his podcast to talk further about the contrail research 4AIR released last week. Listen in as Kennedy goes further in-depth into 4AIR's first-of-its-kind contrail mitigation study, shedding light on the full environmental impact of business aviation, ways we can mitigate contrails, and educating listeners on the industry's advancements in sustainability research. Simon Calder is one of the most respected travel writers and broadcasters in the UK, who developed a passion for travel from a young age and has since become a well-known presenter, writer, and commentator in the travel industry. Listen to the full conversation here: https://bit.ly/3V6V8L7

Last week, we published a report on the contrail impact from business aviation and saw a few unique takeaways for the business aviation industry. We first saw the majority of our contrail impact comes from a very small minority of flights, just 23 flights were responsible for 35% of the total contrail impact from a sample of nearly 17,000 flights. Of those flights, 65% of them could have avoided or reduced their contrail impact by flying higher, saving fuel, and thus reducing their CO2 and non-CO2 impact, instead of a tradeoff between the two. So, targeting mitigation efforts to a small subset of flights would have an outsized impact on reducing our non-CO2 impact. Moreover, we saw the opportunity to reduce both CO2 and non-CO2 impacts, something unique to business aviation because of the higher service ceilings of the aircraft we examined, allowing them to climb above contrail forming regions. This work has helped us over the past 6 months in a contrail avoidance pilot program with Flexjet in Europe and to refine a contrail reporting process that we can bring our clients. Please reach out to us to learn more about our contrail reporting and mitigation product, or to learn more and download the report, visit: https://lnkd.in/eGfv3FVP

Today we released an industry-first examination of the contrail impact within business aviation and mitigation options for reducing our non-CO2 footprint. Working with tools provided by Breakthrough Energy over the past year, we analyzed nearly 17,000 flights covering over 25,000 flight hours and more than 18,000,000 flight kilometers in order to better understand the patterns of how business aviation makes contrails, what their impact is, and what we can do about it. To learn more or download the report, visit: https://lnkd.in/eGfv3FVP

As we learned in discussing the green premium, the cost of Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF) fluctuates across different airports, much like jet fuel. These price variations are expected to persist, even among airports in close proximity. The 'book and claim' method facilitates SAF delivery to airports near its production site, reducing transportation costs, maximizing sustainability benefits and overall creating a more economically efficient approach to SAF adoption. Learn more about how 4AIR can help support your book and claim efforts at 4air.aero/contact

To incentivize SAF usage, many federal and state authorities have implemented credits for users at various stages of the supply chain. These credits include programs like: • SAF Blenders/Producers Tax Credit: Tax credits geared towards the producers and blenders of the fuel to help reduce SAF production costs and provide a consistent source of income. • Low Carbon Fuel Standards (LCFSs or CFSs): States set carbon intensity benchmarks for fuel delivered into their state and allow fuels that beat the benchmark to generate credits that can be sold into the market to offset fuels that do not. These credits help reduce the cost of SAF while the intensity benchmarks reduce carbon emissions for fuels in that state over time. States that have LCFS programs include Washington, Oregon, California, and New Mexico.  • Purchaser Tax Credits: The Illinois SAF Purchase Credit (SAFPC) and the Washington State SAF Tax Credit are incentives targeted toward the operator uplifting SAF. These are the first tax credits enacted or proposed that would directly impact operators using SAF, helping to reduce their cost of using SAF.

We're excited to share that 4AIR is now part of IATA's esteemed Strategic Partnerships Program. As a Strategic Partner, we're committed to driving forward aviation sustainability solutions within the air transport industry. Our goal is to provide IATA members with the necessary tools and insights to accelerate the adoption of SAF and the decarbonization of aviation. #IATA #StrategicPartnership #SustainabilitySolutions

At present, SAF is a long way away from price parity with JetA. To support SAF uptake, we need to reduce the cost of adoption. But how can we reduce the ‘Green Premium’ cost difference? Tax credits, mandates, and other policy measures can provide incentives and requirements for new SAF supply, reducing costs through the use of policy. We’ve seen an abundance of new SAF policies over the last 12 months and are continuing to watch several potential ones on the horizon. These incentives are designed to overlay and stack onto other credits or mandates bridging the cost gap between SAF and JetA, supporting the growth of a more sustainable aviation industry. To learn more about the policies we’re watching, visit www.4air.aero/policywatch