Virgin Atlantic's historic 100% sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) flight took off today from London Heathrow bound for New York's JFK Airport, culminating a year of radical collaboration to demonstrate SAF's capability as a safe and direct replacement for fossil jet fuel, compatible with today's engines, airframes and fuel infrastructure.

According to the airline, this milestone has been made possible by a year of radical collaboration by a consortium led by Virgin Atlantic, including Boeing, Rolls-Royce, Imperial College London, the University of Sheffield, ICF and the Rocky Mountain Institute, in partnership with the Department for Transport.

According to the UK government, the flight, which included Transport Secretary Mark Harper along with Virgin Atlantic CEO Shai Weiss and Virgin founder Sir Richard Branson, "is a major milestone towards making air travel more environmentally friendly as we move towards our goal of net zero by 2050. The historic trip is powered by SAF made from waste fats that cannot enter the food chain. Repurposing waste products into jet fuel to cut emissions provides the most immediate solution to help decarbonise our skies."

Virgin Atlantic and their consortium were awarded up to £1 million of UK government funding in December 2022, following a challenge from the Department for Transport to support the industry in achieving the first transatlantic flight on a commercial aircraft powered by 100% SAF. 

Mark Harper said that the "historic flight, powered by 100% sustainable aviation fuel, shows how we can both decarbonise transport and enable passengers to keep flying when and where they want. This Government has backed today’s flight to take-off and we will continue to support the UK’s emerging SAF industry as it creates jobs, grows the economy and gets us to Jet Zero."

For his part, Shai Weiss, Chief Executive Officer, Virgin Atlantic explained that “Flight100 proves that Sustainable Aviation Fuel can be used as a safe, drop-in replacement for fossil-derived jet fuel and it’s the only viable solution for decarbonising long haul aviation. It’s taken radical collaboration to get here and we’re proud to have reached this important milestone, but we need to push further".

Finally, Sir Richard Branson, Founder, Virgin Atlantic said that "the world will always assume something can’t be done, until you do it. The spirit of innovation is getting out there and trying to prove that we can do things better for everyone’s benefit. I couldn’t be prouder to be onboard Flight100 today alongside the teams at Virgin Atlantic and our partners, which have been working together to set the flight path for the decarbonisation of long-haul aviation."

The flight to the US will also provide the Transport Secretary with the opportunity to showcase the UK’s progress in the future of transport. Promoting the UK’s work on SAF, the Transport Secretary will co-chair a SAF Investor Summit in New York to further unlock private investment to build a sustainable aviation sector that creates jobs in the UK and boosts the economy. Investing in SAF is key to helping scale up the industry, similar to the International Airlines Group (IAG), which recently invested in UK SAF production company Nova Pangaea Technologies, something we aim to mimic with US investors.