Speaking at a media event in Sydney, Julie Kitcher, chief sustainability officer at Airbus, said a “basket of measures” is needed to promote more use of SAF, including a mandate that can be “phased in slowly and then uplifted”.
VH-X4F, which touched down in Canberra on 3 April, is the sixth A220 in the Qantas fleet, and flew passengers for the first time as QF1271 from Canberra to Melbourne on Monday.
The South Australian government has announced that a large parcel of land will be rezoned to support the state’s defence manufacturing capabilities.
The partnership marks the latest step in Qantas and Airbus’ wider US$200 million joint initiative launched in 2022, aimed at fast-tracking SAF production.
The aircraft will be joined by a damaged Australian Army Bushmaster protected mobility vehicle (previously gifted to Ukraine) and a C-130 Hercules cargo aircraft in Anzac Hall as part of a $500 million redevelopment for the national museum.
It comes after Virgin Orbit in 2022 unveiled a similar ambition to turn Toowoomba Wellcamp Airport into a "horizontal launch" spaceport, before the firm collapsed following the failure of its first landmark launch in the UK.