Emirates has become the first international airline to join The Solent Cluster, a southern England, UK initiative focused on low carbon investments.

It is established to reduce CO2 emissions from industry, transport and households in the South Coast of England.

The Solent Cluster is a cross-sector collaboration of organisations, including manufacturers and engineering companies, regional businesses infrastructure operators and academic institutions.

Emirates joins over 100 members as part of the Cluster, alongside founding members the Solent Partners (previously the Solent LEP), global energy provider ExxonMobil and University of Southampton.

The Solent Cluster explores initiatives to secure existing jobs and produce low-carbon fuels for a variety of sectors, including aviation.

The Solent Cluster has the potential to create a sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) plant with an estimated fuel production capacity of 200,000 tonnes per year.

If approved, the plant could start operating in 2032.

Jet fuel produced by the SAF plant could avoid emissions of 563 kilotons of CO2 per year by producing fuel with 70% less emissions.

Existing pipeline networks can supply the sustainable aviation fuel from the plant to major airports served by Emirates such as Heathrow and Gatwick.

Emirates’ hope of securing UK-produced SAF with The Solent Cluster is in addition to several current SAF initiatives.

It follows Emirates’ A380 and Boeing 777 demonstration flights using 100% sustainable aviation fuel in 2023.

Also, Emirates has expanded its partnership with Neste for the supply of SAF in 2024 and 2025 for its operations in Amsterdam and Singapore.

The airline also uplifted SAF for the first time at its hub in Dubai in October 2023.