TUI and Cepsa Announce SAF Partnership

Yesterday, 18 October 2022, Europe’s largest travel group TUI and Spanish energy company Cepsa signed an agreement on the production of sustainable aviation fuel (SAF).The partnership initially involves TUI’s air transport branch. However, this may expand into TUI’s coach and cruise travel in the future.

TUI’s longstanding partner Cepsa supplies the travel group with kerosene and soon, SAF. The agreement aims to reduce both companies’ carbon footprints. For more detail see here.

Tobi Pardo, Cepsa’s Director of Aviation and Asphalts discussed the partnership:

“This new alliance to create more sustainable forms of air transport reinforces our commitment to offer increasingly low-carbon solutions for our customers. We want to walk this path alongside our customers, with whom we share a strong determination in fighting climate change.”

Marco Ciomperlik, Chief Airlines Officer of TUI Group echoed this:

“Collaborations like the one with Cepsa support the achievement of our climate goals. We have set ourselves ambitious reduction targets for TUI Airlines, which are currently being validated by the independent Science Based Targets initiative […] Such cooperation contributes to increasing the availability of sustainable aviation fuels in the future.”

A previous article discusses the predicted costs of scaling up SAF and the difficulties with SAF.

Discussing the partnership, Thomas Ellerbeck, Chief Sustainability Officer at TUI highlighted an important discussion point: the positive impact of the Travel & Tourism industry.

“We see the sustainable transformation not as regulation but as an opportunity for TUI and the travel industry […] Sustainable tourism not only has a lower ecological footprint, but also supports change in holiday destinations – offering opportunities for local people in destinations and creating social and economic added value.

Emission-free travel is our ambitious goal. Whether the flight to the holiday destination, the cruise, the overnight stay in the hotel or experiences booked locally – together with partners as well as our own concepts and projects to reduce emissions, we are working continuously and in concrete terms towards the goal of “Net-Zero.””

In 2019, the Travel & Tourism sector contributed to 10.3 per-cent of global GDP. This figure highlights the centrality of the industry to the global economy. In addition to its contribution to the economy, the industry has the opportunity to support local populations, protect the environment, and educate to name a few. However, the sector is simultaneously responsible for 8 per-cent of the world’s carbon emissions. It is therefore of utmost importance that the sector evolves sustainability to ensure the positive impact of Travel & Tourism outweighs the negatives. This topic will be explored in more detail in a later article.

The TUI-Cepsa partnership is an encouraging step in the decarbonisation of the travel industry.

Article by Jess Brownlow

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