The African Airlines Association (AFRAA) has called on African governments to support Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF) production on the continent. Speaking on a panel session on “Sustainable Air Transport & Climate Resilience” at the ongoing African Air Transport Convention & Expo, Mr. Raphael Kuuchi, Consulting Director Government, Legal and Industry Affairs of AFRAA charged African governments to “support the SAF producers on the continent through subsidies and scale ups” so that African airlines would not be discriminated against, warning that without such measures, African airlines risk falling behind in the global competition for SAF production.
Mr. Kuuchi noted that while “Africa has abundance of feedstock,” the continent still lacks the infrastructure to produce SAF at commercial scale stressing that individual national efforts are insufficient. “We cannot do it at the country level, and for it to be cheaper and profitable, we will need aggregation. What we would want to see is from the AU level, what we can do together as a continent, to ensure that we have enough capacity to actually produce SAF in commercial quantities”, said Mr. Kuuchi.
Mr. Kuuchi also warned against policy fragmentation on SAF. He noted that the industry was “not seeing policy integration or policy harmonization. Each country is trying to come up with its own policy, and we end up pulling in different directions.” He stated that “some of our countries are already committing feedstock from Africa to other countries outside the continent”.
He concluded that environmental standards are now a competitive factor in aviation. “Today, there are some corporates in this world, if your airline do not have an environment strategy, their staff will not fly you on company’s resources.”
Panelists at the African Air Transport Convention & Expo 2026