As part of its plans to promote the development of sustainable aviation fuel, American carrier United Airlines has now enrolled 22 corporate giants as well as over 115,000 of its customers to join its Sustainable Flight Fund, which now has a corpus of over USD 200 million.

With several new companies joining in, United Airlines has announced that its United Airlines Ventures Sustainable Flight Fund now had 22 corporate partners in order to help the airline with its unique effort to reduce emissions and drive production of sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) through investments in startups.

In a press statement, United says that these corporate partners make up all parts of the aviation supply chain, from airlines, aircraft and engine manufacturers, fuel producers, engineering and technology experts, financiers and travel management, and have now committed more than USD 200 million while collaborating to provide strategic expertise to help the Fund’s portfolio companies reach commercialisation.

United adds that since its inception in February 2023, the Fund remains aviation’s first and only venture fund backed by a broad limited partner base and created to identify and support startups advancing feedstock and technology development focused on increasing the supply of SAF.

It says that it has included a way for everyday consumers to participate as well. Anyone using its website or the United app has an option to contribute to supplement the fund before check-out. Users have the choice to contribute USD 1, 3.5 or 7. Continuing in the effort toward climate transparency for its customers, United also now shows an estimated carbon emissions for flights booked through its website or app. It adds that in less than 12 months, more than 115,000 people have contributed nearly USD 500,000 since February 2023.

SAF is an alternative to conventional jet fuel that, on a lifecycle basis, reduces greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions associated with air travel compared to conventional jet fuel alone. To date, United has invested in the future production of over 5 billion gallons or 18.93 billion litres of SAF, the most of any airline in the world.

‘‘SAF is the best tool we have to decarbonise airplanes, but we don’t have enough of it. To create the fuel supply we need for our fleet, United recognised that we would have to help build a brand-new industry from scratch, like wind and solar in previous decades. As part of our effort to build a new sustainable aviation ecosystem, we recruited a group of partners with the industry expertise to support our startups with both financial and strategic capital, to help them navigate the entire process from conception to commercialisation,’’ says  Andrew Chang, Managing Director of United Airlines Ventures.