OMV to supply Ryanair with up to 53 million gallons of sustainable aviation fuel over 8 years

MOU signing in Vienna—Nina Marczell, OMV and Thomas Fowler, Ryanair (Photo: OMV)

OMV, the international integrated oil, gas and chemicals company headquartered in Vienna, Austria, and Ryanair signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) Sept. 14 to supply sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) at Ryanair airports across Austria, Germany and Romania.

While the limited production of SAF remains a global aviation issue, this MOU agreement gives Ryanair unique access to purchase up to 53 million gallons of SAF from OMV over eight years, beginning in 2023.

This would account for a total CO2 reduction of more than 400,000 metric tons, equivalent to approximately 25,000 Ryanair flights from Dublin to Vienna.

The MOU demonstrates Ryanair’s progress towards its target of using 12.5 percent SAF by 2030 and the airline and OMV’s wider shared ambition to reach net-zero emissions by 2050.

Ryanair has already significantly advanced these commitments by partnering with Trinity College Dublin to open the Ryanair Sustainable Aviation Research Centre and investing USD$22 billion in its “Gamechanger” fleet, which offers 4 percent more seats while burning 16 percent less fuel.

OMV is implementing numerous measures to achieve its ambitious strategic sustainability goals, and SAF makes an essential contribution in this transformation.

Based on the strategic outlook for the aviation sector, OMV sees sustainable aviation fuel as an important addition to its future jet-fuel range.

This portfolio upgrade is in line with OMV’s commitment to becoming a net-zero company by no later than 2050 (for scopes 1, 2 and 3). Clear medium- and long-term emission-reduction targets have been defined for this purpose as part of the OMV Strategy 2030. The planned scale up of SAF production to 700,000 tons (approximately 232 million gallons) in 2030 will play an important role in achieving these goals.

“We are committed to reducing our own carbon footprint as well as supporting our customers in reducing theirs,” said Nina Marczell, an executive with OMV. “This memorandum of understanding is a great opportunity to accelerate both companies’ sustainability efforts. Sustainable aviation fuel significantly reduces CO2 emissions, and we are delighted to collaborate with strong partners like Ryanair and to provide solutions for the sustainable development of the aviation industry.”

Speaking in Vienna, Thomas Fowler, Ryanair’s director of sustainability, said, “SAF is a cornerstone of our ‘Pathway to Net Zero’ decarbonization strategy and we are committed to increasing our use of SAF over the coming years, a commitment that this agreement will play an instrumental role in. We are delighted with the investment and scaling of OMV’s innovative SAF production across Europe. OMV is a key partner for us in Austria, Germany and Romania and we look forward to growing this partnership as Europe’s largest airline.”