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Air France-KLM Eyes India as Major SAF Producer, Seeks Partnerships
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CNBC TV18•30-09-2026, 20:05
Air France-KLM Eyes India as Major SAF Producer, Seeks Partnerships
- •Air France-KLM sees India as a significant opportunity for sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) production and consumption, driven by its rapidly expanding aviation sector.
- •Zita Schellekens, Senior Vice President, Strategy, Sustainability & Transformation, KLM, highlighted India's "tremendous potential" to become a successful SAF producer due to its growing market and government focus on sustainability.
- •Air France-KLM is open to exploring alliances with Indian corporate customers and long-term offtake agreements for Indian-produced SAF, ensuring it meets European sustainability criteria.
- •Despite SAF being 2-4 times more expensive and supply-constrained, Air France-KLM emphasizes its importance for decarbonization and strategic independence from volatile kerosene markets.
- •The airline focuses on SAF pathways that avoid palm oil, competition with food production, and meet strict sustainability and certification requirements, aiming for at least 65% CO2 emission reduction.
Key Questions Answered
Air France-KLM sees India as having tremendous potential to emerge as a major sustainable aviation fuel producer and consumer, creating opportunities for international partnerships, corporate alliances, and long-term offtake agreements with Indian producers.
Sustainable aviation fuel currently faces significant supply constraints and high costs, being priced two to four times higher than conventional kerosene due to limited production volumes.
Air France-KLM focuses on sustainable aviation fuel pathways that avoid palm oil, prevent competition with food production, meet relevant certification requirements, and deliver roughly 90% lower life-cycle CO₂ emissions than conventional kerosene.
