India clears the runway for sustainable aviation fuel

The Government has approved a framework permitting ethanol blending in aviation turbine fuel and for bringing Aviation Turbine Fuel blended with Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF) under the ambit of the ATF Control Order. This is an enabling step for India's indicative SAF targets of 1% blending on international flights by 2027 and 2% by 2028. A National SAF Policy is under development. The timing matters as CORSIA's first mandatory phase begins in 2027, and adopting SAF is one of the compliance routes available to Indian carriers.