DHL Express has signed a deal for the purchase of over 7m litres of sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) a year to help cut emissions from airfreight originating in Japan.
The deal with Cosmo Oil Marketing Co., Ltd. represents an annual purchase of 7.2m litres of SAF, which DHL Express will use for its regular cargo shipping services starting in April 2025, marking the first such initiative for the international express industry in Asia.
Saffaire Sky Energy LLC, a subsidiary of Cosmo Energy Holdings Co., Ltd, will produce SAF at its mass production facility in Japan and is scheduled to begin operations in 2025.
The SAF fuel procured under this agreement will be delivered to Chubu Centrair International Airport, near Nagoya. The Japanese airport will be the first airport to utilise SAF in Asia among more than 500 airports used in the DHL Express global network, according to DHL.
DHL Express currently accepts SAF at airports around the world including Amsterdam Schiphol in the Netherlands, Stockholm Arlanda in Sweden, Brussels Airport in Belgium, East Midlands and Stansted airports in the UK, Los Angeles, Miami and San Francisco in the US, and Leipzig Airport in Germany.
Tony Khan, president and representative director of DHL Express Japan, said: “We are pleased that, through our agreement with Cosmo Oil Marketing, we will be the first international express provider in Japan to use the locally produced SAF on scheduled regular cargo flights.
”SAF is currently the most effective solution for reducing greenhouse gas emissions in air transport. Moving forward, as part of our responsibility to customers in Japan, we are committed to promoting emission-reduced shipping solutions and to contributing to the reduction of the transport sector’s environmental impact.”
Since 2022, DHL Express has been offering GoGreen Plus, which enables air cargo customers to reduce (in-set) their Scope 3 greenhouse gas emissions using SAF.
In addition to Cosmo Oil Marketing in Japan, DHL also procures SAF from agreements that DHL Express has concluded with BP in the UK and Neste in Finland in 2022, and with World Energy in the US in 2023.
DHL has made major investments in SAF in the last few years. For example, in October last year, DHL Express and DHL Global Forwarding signed a renewed contract with IAG Cargo to use an extra 60 million litres of SAF. The new contract is the largest SAF agreement between an airline and a customer to date.
