An Interview with Sino Jet: Green Aviation Building a Sustainable Future

• Sino Jet

Combating global warming and improving our environment are the latest common concerns worldwide. The European Union announced its mandate to achieve carbon neutrality by 2050, and greenhouse gas emissions are expected to reduce by 55% in 2030 against emission figures in 1990. Meanwhile, China has pledged to achieve carbon peaking by 2030 and carbon neutrality by 2060. From this timeline, we must establish a continuous, structural and systematic transformation process over 40 years for carbon neutrality to be realized.

Aircraft today are mainly powered by fossil jet fuels, and aviation accounts for about 2.5-3% of carbon of the world’s total carbon dioxide emissions. It is imperative for aircraft operators to promote and abide by sustainability. Early in April 2022, Sino Jet as a leading business jet company in the Asia-Pacific region, operated China’s first “carbon neutral” flight by business jet through the China Certified Emission Reduction (CCER) scheme, when Sino Jet brought its self-owned Dassault Falcon 7X business jet from France to China. This unprecedented achievement set a positive example in China’s business aviation industry to further explore and adopt practices that better protect our environment and reduce carbon emissions.

Advocating green development, Sino Jet announced that its goal is to achieve carbon neutrality in its overall business in 2035; and achieve carbon neutrality in its self-owned fleet, ground support business, and office operations in 2025; and by 2025, achieve carbon neutrality in at least 20% of its managed fleet. Sino Jet plans to abide by “prioritise energy conservation and emission reduction, then supplement by carbon offsetting”. In addition to existing green practices, Sino Jet aims to centre around six aspects to reach its carbon neutrality goal on schedule, these aspects include digitalisation, use of sustainable energy, green office premises, green transportation policies, a green supply chain and lastly, carbon offsetting.

Sino Jet’s carbon management system has already been launched and integrated within the company’s information management system to oversee the entire aircraft operation. The carbon management system closely monitors the greenhouse gas emissions in all aspects of the operation, and creates a scientific and traceable green aircraft operation mode to support Sino Jet’s carbon neutrality plan. In terms of the company’s per capita carbon emissions, Sino Jet targets a 20% reduction by 2035 and a 40%
reduction by 2050.

Sino Jet’s business ecology spans key companies in various fields, such as introducing green in-flight meals, incentivising carbonneutral flight options and launching green flight reward programs. Sino Jet is determined to lead the business aviation industry in picking up the pace towards carbon neutrality.

Sino Jet intends to widen its clients’ flight options to cover carbon neutral services, and add environmentally friendly elements into its service.

Use of Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF) also plays an important role in Sino Jet’s big plan towards carbon neutrality. SAF as an alternative can reduce carbon dioxide emissions by about 75% to 90%. However, limited geographically, only a handful of airports around the world currently provide regular sustainable aviation fuel (SAF). To further promote the use of sustainable aviation fuel, Sino Jet intends to collaborate with Chinese aviation fuel agencies to become a pilot operator to give priority to SAF. The effectiveness of the process will be evaluated in strict faith to promote carbon neutrality.

Sino Jet detailed that achieving carbon neutrality requires a collective effort from industry stakeholders, to find ways to reduce emissions in all aspects. Additionally, advance technological applications, industry research and development, use of fuel efficient business jets, and building a green energy system have also been named as key steps towards achieving carbon neutrality. Sino Jet has committed to working closely with aircraft manufacturers, fuel supply agents, airports, ground transportation companies and other industry stakeholders to identify more improvement opportunities, at the same time, helping traditional industries to innovate sustainably, acting responsibly under China’s mandate against climate change.

Sino Jet www.sinojet.org