MELBOURNE : Airbus SE and Qantas Airways Ltd plan to announce the first investment from a $200 million fund to develop a sustainable aviation fuel industry in Australia within about a month, an Airbus executive said on Monday.
Australia lacks an SAF industry, meaning Qantas' purchases of the fuel are made at overseas airports. "The first investment has been made but not fully closed yet," he said in an interview ahead of the Australia International Airshow, which begins on Tuesday."We've both agreed to it, and I think we'll make some announcements probably in the next month or so around the completion of that."Forshaw said most of the investments being considered involved seed funding, where the partners might take a minority equity stake.
He declined to say what type of project was planned for the first investment but said that in the longer term, Australia had lots of potential to use solar power for projects that would help meet demand given limited feedstock available from sources like oils and fats.