12 March 2024
There’s a new term in aviation: The Fly Up. It’s a take on the Full English: a fried breakfast cooked with oil that is then cleaned and recycled into renewable biofuels.
It’s been created especially for Heathrow Airport by celebrity chef Heston Blumenthal to create awareness of Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF).
Apparently, only 14 per cent of travellers having heard of SAF, despite the fact it will play a key role in reducing the carbon footprint of the aviation industry.
Heathrow believes SAF is the single biggest innovation to help aviation hit its Net Zero target by 2050, and is aiming for 2.5% of all fuel used at Heathrow to be SAF in 2024.
SAF is said to have a considerably smaller carbon footprint compared to traditional jet fuel and is made from a variety of sources, including used cooking oils.
Created by celebrity chef Heston Blumenthal apparently
Heathrow is working with waste management service Quatra to collect, clean and recycle the used cooking oils from the Fly Up breakfast.
Following collection, the cooking oils and fats undergo treatment and purification to remove organic impurities and water. The processed used oil is then forwarded to Quatra’s partners and transformed into biofuels including Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF) and Hydrotreated Vegetable Oil (HVO).
Heathrow Airport even has its own Director of Carbon, Matt Gorman, who said, “By demonstrating how cooking oils can be converted into biofuels, we want people to understand how SAF is a real solution to decarbonise aviation and show how we’re continuing our mission to get to Net Zero by 2050.
“We know that having the right government policies in place is crucial to making this shift happen. We need a mandate for SAF use, as well as a price support mechanism, to de-risk and incentivise investment in UK SAF facilities.”
The Heathrow Fly up breakfast will be available at The Perfectionist’s Cafe located in Terminal 2.
