United Airlines has launched a new investment fund focused on sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) research, technology and production.
The United Airlines Ventures Sustainable Flight Fund is starting with more than $100 million in investments from United, JPMorgan Chase, GE Aerospace, Honeywell and Air Canada.
United has previously invested in SAF and related technologies, and those investments or signed purchase agreements will be moved into the new Sustainable Flight Fund portfolio.
Corporates can contribute to the fund, and those that do will have "the potential to gain preferential access to environmental attributes associated with United's supply of SAF," said the carrier in a statement.
In addition, customers booking directly with United for travel within or from the US can contribute to the new sustainable fuel fund in increments of $1, $3.50 or $7. The default option, which appears before check-out, for customer contributions is $3.50.
“Solving climate change is doable but it requires hard work and real leadership,” said United CEO Scott Kirby. “This fund is unique. It's not about offsets or things that are just greenwashing.
“Instead, we're creating a system that drives investment to build a new industry around sustainable aviation fuel, essentially from scratch. That's the only way we can actually decarbonise aviation.”
The carrier calculated that if the 152 million people who flew with United in 2022 each contributed $3.50 to the Sustainable Flight Fund, that would be enough to design and build a SAF refinery capable of producing as much as 40 million gallons of the fuel per year.
United also now makes available an estimate of each flight's carbon footprint to travellers when searching for a flight. Green shading of a flight in the display will indicate a lower-carbon option on an economy-seat per-passenger basis in a customer's chosen itinerary.
The footprint is measured in kilogrammes of CO2 emitted. United noted that estimates could differ from actual emissions and are based on aircraft type, flying time, seat capacity, and the number of people and cargo on a given flight.