Airbus Completes A380 Eco-Flight On Renewable Fuel

Airbus has completed the first A380 flight using only sustainable aviation fuel (SAF).

Airbus’ A380 test aircraft MSN 1 took off from Toulouse’s Blagnac Airport.

The flight lasted roughly three hours and used a single Rolls-Royce Trent 900 engine running at full power.

Total Energies provided the flight with approximately 27 tonnes of unblended SAF.

The SAF produced in Normandy, near Le Havre, was made from Hydro processed Esters and Fatty Acids (HEFA), free of aromatics and sulphur and predominantly composed of discarded cooking oil and other waste fats.

A second trip from Toulouse to Nice Airport using the same aircraft is planned to test SAF usage during take-off and landing.

This is the third Airbus aircraft type to fly exclusively on SAF in 12 months; the first was an A350 in March 2021, followed by an A319neo single-aisle aircraft in October.

All Airbus aeroplanes are currently certified to fly with up to a 50% SAF/kerosene blend.

The goal is to attain 100 per cent SAF certification by the end of the decade.

The A380 aircraft used in the test was recently identified as Airbus’ ZEROe Demonstrator – a flying testbed for future technologies critical to delivering the world’s first zero-emission aircraft to market by 2035.