Japan Airlines (JAL) has announced the signing a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Airbus, Nippon Paper, Sumitomo Corporation and Green Earth Institute (GEI), to explore sourcing Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF) from domestic Japanese wood.
In February 2025, Nippon Paper, Sumitomo Corporation and GEI signed a Memorandum of Agreement (MoA) to establish a joint venture to manufacture and sell bioethanol made from wood biomass. JAL and Airbus have since joined the project, formally titled ‘‘Morisora’, and will promote the use and expansion of domestic SAF by collaborating with businesses involved in the supply and demand of SAF.
Under the MoU, the five companies will work to enable a low-carbon society by reducing greenhouse gas emissions during raw material procurement and production, and by producing and selling domestic wood-based bioethanol that has a low cycle assessment (LCA), and is compliant with the Carbon Offsetting and Reduction Scheme for International Aviation (CORSIA).
The Japanese flag carrier declared that it aims to promote domestically produced SAF and has set a goal of replacing 10% of all onboard fuel with SAF by 2030.
By connecting the SAF suppliers with stakeholders involved in production, JAL believes it will advance the construction of a supply chain. Meanwhile, Airbus will support the work to obtain the CORSIA certification for the domestic woody biomass of this project, as well as contributing to the industry target to achieve net-zero carbon emissions by 2050.
