Govt, industry must boost green aviation fuel with incentives: SpiceJet CMD

The government and industry have to come together and create a "significant incentive and logistic structure" for the production of sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) to help reduce carbon emissions, SpiceJet CMD Ajay Singh said on Wednesday.

Discussions have been held with the Prime Minister's Office for allotment of spaces near airports for SAF refineries to save on transportation costs, and also with oil marketing companies, including IOC, BPCL and HPCL, to build a mini refinery for SAF production in their existing refineries, he added.

"I think one of the things that we need to do is to have these SAF refineries, which are relatively simpler, probably closer to airports. If you're really serious about it. We've had this discussion with the PMO as well, that, can you allot spaces, which are close to airports so that the transport cost, which is the largest part of that cost, because you know you have to address these issues," Singh said.

The SpiceJet CMD said at that some point the government and the industry have to get together and create a significant incentive and logistic structure to make SAF.

In 2023, the production of SAF stood at around 0.5 million tonnes and the amount has to be increased multiple folds by 2050.

The International Air Transport Association (IATA) earlier said it would establish the SAF Registry to accelerate the uptake of the fuel by authoritatively accounting for and reporting emissions reductions from the use of the fuel.