Sustainable aviation fuel from St1 powers daily Danish flights

Photo: Clienti

Norwegian’s Aalborg-Copenhagen route in Denmark began operating March 4 with a 40 percent sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) blend produced at St1’s Gothenburg refinery—not as a one-off flight, but as part of scheduled daily service.

Under a three-year agreement, 3,000 cubic meters (792,516 gallons) of SAF will be supplied annually to the route.

The fuel is blended and delivered through Denmark’s existing aviation-fuel infrastructure without requiring changes to aircraft or airport systems.

“This is scheduled commercial traffic operating with a stable SAF supply,” said ST1 CEO Henrikki Talvitie. “For a producer, that makes all the difference. Long-term agreements allow us to plan feedstock sourcing, refining volumes and logistics in a responsible way.”

The route was established following a Danish state tender designed to stimulate demand for SAF.

Predictable demand is essential for scaling production.

Industrial facilities require volume commitments that extend beyond symbolic flights.

At the Gothenburg biorefinery, allocated renewable raw materials of European origin are refined into aviation-grade fuel certified under ISCC sustainability standards.

The SAF is sold via DCC & Shell Denmark, with AFSN facilitating the transaction structure.

In practice, this means SAF produced in Sweden enters daily Danish flight operations through established Nordic fuel supply chains.

The 40 percent blend level is significantly higher than current European mandate requirements.

While SAF reduces lifecycle greenhouse-gas emissions compared with conventional jet fuel, aircraft engines still emit CO2 during combustion.

With a 40 percent SAF blend, however, each flight will have around 30 percent reduction of total CO2 emission compared to a flight on regular jet fuel.

Annually the Norwegian route between Aalborg and Copenhagen means that emissions from the route are reduced by more than 3,000 metric tons of CO2 annually, measured across the fuel’s full lifecycle.

“Aviation is one of the sectors where liquid fuels will remain necessary for the foreseeable future,” Talvitie said. “If emissions are to be reduced, the solutions must work within today’s infrastructure. Industrial-scale production, verified feedstock and functioning logistics are what make increased SAF use possible in practice.”

At Aalborg Airport, political leaders and industry representatives gathered to mark the start of operations.

For St1, however, the milestone lies not in the ceremony, but in continuity.

“Delivering certified fuel consistently, year after year, is what turns sustainable aviation fuel from pilot initiative into part of everyday flight operations,” the company stated.