Sustainable Aviation Fuel: What Private Jets Can Burn Today
SAF is jet fuel made from waste oils, crops or captured carbon, and every modern business jet can already burn it in a blend. The problem is supply: it made up well under 1 percent of the world's jet fuel in 2025.
Every business jet flying today can burn sustainable aviation fuel. None of them needs a new engine, a new tank or a software update to do it. That makes SAF the most practical way for private aviation to cut its carbon emissions this decade, and also exposes the real problem: there is very little of it.
What it is
Sustainable aviation fuel is jet fuel made from something other than crude oil. The most common kind today, known as HEFA, is refined from used cooking oil, animal fats and other waste oils. Other routes turn alcohols, farm and forestry waste or municipal rubbish into fuel, and the newest, called e-SAF or power-to-liquid, combines hydrogen made with renewable electricity and carbon dioxide captured from the air or industry. IATA counts 11 production pathways certified under ASTM standards.
The finished product is chemically close to conventional Jet A. Burned in an engine, it releases roughly the same carbon dioxide as fossil fuel. The saving comes from the life cycle: the carbon in the feedstock was recently taken out of the atmosphere, rather than dug out of the ground. IATA puts the typical lifecycle reduction at about 80 percent compared with conventional fuel, though the figure depends heavily on the feedstock.
How it works in practice
SAF is a drop-in fuel. It is blended with conventional jet fuel, up to a maximum of 50 percent under the ASTM D7566 specification, and the blend is then treated as ordinary Jet A. A pilot orders fuel from the FBO as usual, and the truck that arrives may carry a blend.
Where no SAF is available on the airfield, operators can use book-and-claim. They fuel with conventional Jet A but pay for an equivalent volume of SAF delivered into the fuel system somewhere else, and receive the emissions credit. NBAA describes it as the main way operators reach SAF when their home airport has none.
Pure SAF is not yet approved for everyday use, largely because conventional fuel contains aromatic compounds that help some seals swell and stay tight. Manufacturers are testing the next step. On 19 November 2023 a Gulfstream G600 flew from Savannah, Georgia, to Farnborough in England on 100 percent SAF in both Pratt & Whitney PW815GA engines. The flight took 6 hours and 56 minutes and used neat HEFA supplied by World Energy, with lifecycle carbon emissions at least 70 percent lower than fossil fuel.
Where it stands today
According to IATA, the world produced about 1 million tonnes of SAF in 2024 and about 1.9 million tonnes in 2025, roughly 2.4 billion litres. That doubled output still amounted to only 0.6 percent of global jet fuel use. IATA expects growth to slow in 2026, to about 2.4 million tonnes, or 0.8 percent. Price is the obstacle: in 2024 the market premium for HEFA SAF in Europe reached about $1,000 a tonne above its production cost, according to IATA.
Rules are now forcing supply. Under the EU's ReFuelEU Aviation regulation, fuel supplied at larger EU airports must contain 2 percent SAF from 2025, rising to 6 percent in 2030, 20 percent in 2035, 34 percent in 2040, 42 percent in 2045 and 70 percent in 2050. A separate sub-target for synthetic fuel starts at 1.2 percent in 2030 and reaches 35 percent in 2050. The obligation falls on fuel suppliers at EU airports above set traffic thresholds, so it covers the fuel business jets take on there too.
Business aviation has moved early, partly because its customers ask for it. NBAA says more than 100 FBOs worldwide now offer SAF directly, and fuel networks such as Signature Aviation sell it at selected locations. Industry groups supply SAF at events such as the NBAA convention in Las Vegas.
Which aircraft use it, and the limits
In the JetAtlas catalogue, every turbine aircraft, from the smallest turboprop to the largest Airbus and Boeing jets, can use blends of up to 50 percent. The Gulfstream G600 stands out because of its 2023 flight on pure SAF.
The limits are supply, cost and scrutiny. Waste oils are finite, and crops raise questions about land use. E-SAF needs large amounts of renewable electricity and is still at an early industrial stage. Book-and-claim requires trustworthy registries so that one gallon of SAF is not counted twice. SAF is the one tool business aviation can use at scale today, but it will take years before it is a meaningful share of what private jets burn.
Sources
- IATA: Sustainable Aviation Fuel
- IATA: SAF production growth rate is slowing down (December 2025)
- Pratt & Whitney: Gulfstream G600 completes first 100% SAF transatlantic flight
- EBAA: ReFuelEU Aviation
- NBAA: Business Aviation Coalition for Sustainable Aviation Fuel (2025)
- NBAA: No SAF at the FBO? Try book-and-claim