This summer’s travel season could forever change the future of sustainable aviation fuel

Late last year, Vancouver aviation analyst Mark Miller bought it airplane tickets to bring his family of four to Rome this summer. The Millers spend the summer in Italy touring the city’s ancient ruins, checking out the Vatican, and jetting off to Sardinia to see the island’s mountains, white-sand beaches, and ancient limestone caves.

Five months later, Miller, a commentator for CBC News, watched in disbelief as Iran shut down Hormuz River-the most important waterway between the Persian Gulf and the Gulf of Oman, through which about 20 percent of the world’s oil flows.

The shutdown sent more oil into the world, reducing reserves in the UK, Germany, and France. “Reports from Europe said that oil could run out by the end of June, which is when we would be there,” says Miller. “The last thing we want to do is get stuck in Europe.”

Supply shortages have spread across the US as the war in Iran continues. Thursday, An American Airlines spokesperson told USA Today that it will temporarily suspend several domestic routes in August and September due to the increase in jet fuel prices.

In the end, the Millers canceled their trip, along with millions of summer travelers who do the same. With airlines canceling thousands of flights before they run out of fuel, Miller and other experts have turned to sustainable aviation fuel, called SAF, which can cut emissions by 80 percent but costs two to five times the cost of conventional jet fuel. United Airlines, Delta, American, and Cathay Pacific are among the carriers using SAF.

“Currently, the cost of regular fuel seems to double during the summer,” said Lauren Riley, chief safety officer at United Airlines. “This makes SAF look like an alternative to economic competition. In fact, it’s closer than we’ve ever seen. This is the first time in my career that we’re discussing this issue.”

Before the closure, the summer of 2026 was planning a post-Covid return to air travel. I am FIFA World CupAmerica’s semiquincentennial celebrations, and Harry Styles’ “Together, Together” world tour, demand for summer travel has never been stronger, Riley says.

With rising costs and increasing demand, the airline industry is hoping that SAF can help bridge the gap. Made from renewable resources such as used cooking oil and leftover fry oil, SAF can be combined with conventional jet fuel instead without the need to change the aircraft’s design.

US conglomerate World Energy began converting agricultural waste, oil, fuel, and oil into SAF at its facility in Paramount, California in 2016, becoming the first commercial oil producer. “There isn’t any difference between the asset optimization approach and the mix,” says Joseph Ran, vice president of asset optimization for World Energy. “You just add another part of the SAF mixture to the base oil.”

The technology is simple, according to Ran. The problem is making reliable contributions. Bottlenecks such as the lack of feedstocks, complex infrastructure, and expensive production processes have kept companies using SAF to less than 1 percent of global oil consumption. World Energy, which supplied SAF to United Airlines, Air France, KLM, and others, ended SAF production last year “as part of an effort to focus on the industry,” a company spokesman said.

But this year’s oil crisis has shown the need for an alternative to jet fuel. Scott Lewis, president of World Energy’s Net-Zero Services group, says Scott Lewis. In April, United partnered with Microsoft, DSV, and Houston-based multinational energy company Phillips 66 to increase production and open 11 million gallons of SAF.