Cathay's SAF programme welcomes global partners to fight climate change

Cathay has welcomed new global partners to contribute to its Corporate Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF) progamme as it expands with tiered structure. 

This comes as the brand strives to make significant progress in its sustainability journey since the launch of the programme in 2022. This year, the programme has achieved substantial growth and is becoming one of the biggest initiatives of its kind globally, marked by new global partnerships and a record commitment to SAF usage. 

Building on the momentum of the past two years, the programme has introduced a tiered structure, allowing customers to participate based on their SAF demand and business needs.  

Meanwhile, Cathay has also onboarded DB Schenker, the biggest contributor to the programme to date, and Kuehne+Nagel as diamond partners, EQT as a gold partner, and Julius Baer and Lenton Group as silver partners, bringing the total to 15 partners this year.  

Notably, this year has seen multi-year commitments from partners as they view SAF as a long-term solution to their decarbonisation journey, reinforcing Cathay’s 2030 SAF target. 

Cathay also recognises the continued commitment of some of its longstanding partners, including Airport Authority Hong Kong, AIA, Dimerco Express Group, Kintetsu World Express, Standard Chartered Bank, Swire Pacific, Yusen Logistics, and the Business Environment Council. This diverse partnership base reflects a strong commitment to reducing the climate impact from both business travel and airfreight services, and across different sectors in our community. 

The programme partners together in 2024 have committed to using 2,650 tonnes of SAF, equivalent to a reduction of approximately 8,060 tonnes of carbon emissions, three times the reduction achieved last year. 

Cathay Group CEO Ronald Lam said: “Our Corporate SAF programme has now entered into its third year and keeps expanding. The programme is a key pillar in Cathay’s overall approach to leading the aviation industry’s decarbonisation.” 

“With growing support from our corporate travel and cargo customers, Cathay continues to increase SAF usage across our network worldwide. In doing so, our customers are able to help reduce emissions from their air travel and airfreight,” he added. 

In addition to scaling up SAF adoption, Cathay also relies on fleet modernisation, operational efficiency improvements, leveraging on emerging technology breakthroughs to decarbonise aviation, and high-quality carbon offsets and removals to achieve the long-term net-zero carbon emissions goal by 2050.  

Related articles:

Cathay shows off fresh tagline, new business plans, and a slick ad campaign
Cathay retells inspiring stories of HK Paralympians with AI campaign