All global Airbus commercial aircraft assembly sites are now sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) capable after Canada’s A220 home in Mirabel took its first delivery.
Announcing the green milestone on March 20, 2025, Airbus said its Mirabel A220 site recently welcomed the first tanker truck filled with SAF to power internal operations.
Joining their colleagues around the world, the Airbus A220 teams in Canada will now be able to use SAF for production, customer acceptance and test flights.
“On average, SAF can reduce CO2 emissions by up to 80% compared to traditional jet fuel. This substantial reduction is crucial to the industry’s progress towards decarbonisation by 2050. It’s a big milestone to now have our Mirabel site in Canada, as SAF capable as our other Airbus sites. It not only means we can test our A220 aircraft using SAF, but we will also be able to deliver them to our customers with SAF too,” Benoît Schultz, CEO of Airbus Canada said.
According to Airbus, 75% of the planemaker’s aircraft were delivered with SAF in 2024, representing the importance that its customers are also placing on decarbonisation.
While in 2025, Airbus plans that all commercial aircraft delivery centers around the world will offer SAF to customers for ferry flights.
“Management of SAF in Mirabel will be done using the mass balance principle. Once the SAF has been transported and delivered to Airbus Canada, it is blended with the conventional aviation fuel (CAF) also known as Jet-A1 in the Mirabel site’s fuel farm. The dilution of CAF and SAF in the fuel tanks is allowed through established standards and auditable bookkeeping,” a spokesperson for Airbus explained.
Airbus Canada hopes to begin to deliver SAF Proof of Sustainability (PoS) certificates to A220 customers receiving their aircraft from Mirabel in 2025.
SAF has been used in A220 aircraft delivered from the A220 Mobile Final Assembly Line since 2016.
“As with all Airbus aircraft, the A220 is already able to operate with up to 50% Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF). Airbus aims for all its aircraft to be capable of operating with up to 100% SAF by 2030,” the Airbus spokesperson added.
