Emirates flies a Boeing 777 with a 100% engine powered by sustainable fuel

Emirates carried out its first demonstration flight on a Boeing 777-300ER, fueling one of its engines with Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF) 100%. The flight took off from the international airport in Dubai (DXB) and was commanded by Captain Fali Vajifdar and Captain Khalid Nasser Akram, Flying for more than an hour over the coast of Dubai.

This flight also had special significance, as the Emirates declared the 2023 "Year of Sustainability".

This is the first demonstration flight in the Middle East and North Africa to be powered to 100% by SAF. Currently, SAF is approved for use in all aircraft, but only in blends up to 50% with conventional jet fuel.

Emirates has partnered with GE Aerospace, Boeing, Honeywell, Neste, and Virent to procure and develop A blend of SAFs that can faithfully reproduce the properties of conventional jet fuel. After numerous laboratory tests and rigorous trials, a mixing ratio was achieved to reflect the qualities of jet fuel. The 100% SAF fueled one GE90 engine, while conventional jet fuel powered the other engine.

"The test flight," reads a note from the company, "further demonstrates the compatibility of the SAF specially blended as a safe and reliable fuel source. The promising result of this initiative also adds to the industry's body of data and research on mixtures of SAF in higher proportions, Paving the way for standardization and future approval of SAF's 100% drop-in jet fuel replacement, far beyond the current blend limit of 50%."

Adel Al Redha, chief operating officer of Emirates Airline., said, "This flight is a milestone for Emirates and a positive step for our industry as we work collectively to address one of our biggest challenges - reducing our carbon footprint. It has been a long journey to finally see this 100% SAF demonstration flight take off." Emirates is the first airline in the world to operate a Boeing 777 powered by a GE engine at 100% SAF. These initiatives contribute greatly to the industry's knowledge of SAF and provide data to demonstrate the use of higher SAF blends for future regulatory approvals. We hope that demonstration flights like this will help open the door to supply chain scalability of SAF and make it more available and affordable geographically and, most importantly, cost-effective for wider industry adoption in the future."

"GE Aerospace congratulates Emirates on this important achievement. SAF is critical to helping the aviation industry achieve the goal of being net zero by 2050, and collaborations like this one to test SAF's 100% globally will help us get closer to that goal." said Aziz Koleilat, vice president of Global Sales and Marketing for the Middle East, Eastern Europe and Turkey at GE Aerospace.

"Boeing congratulates Emirates on the success of its flight tests using sustainable aviation fuel (SAF)." said Omar Arekat, vice president, Commercial Sales and Marketing, Middle East, The Boeing Company -. SAF will play a key role in the aviation industry's commitment to be net zero by 2050, requiring strong industry collaboration. We were proud to collaborate with Emirates on these tests and look forward to continuing to work with our partners to enable the widespread use of SAF around the world."

Emirates' first flight powered by SAF blended with jet fuel took place in 2017, departing from Chicago O'Hare Airport on a Boeing 777. In 2020 the airline received its first SAF-powered A380, and in the same year it also loaded 32 tons of SAF for its flights from Stockholm.