American Express Global Business Travel has announced the first client to join its sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) pilot programme.
Professional services firm Aon has become the first Amex GBT customer to commit to join the Avelia “book-and-claim” solution for buying SAF, which was launched last week in partnership with energy giant Shell and Accenture.
Avelia aims to share the costs and benefits of SAF across business travel by giving airlines access to the “buying capacity” of corporate customers who are willing to share the higher cost of purchasing SAF compared with traditional jet fuel.
The announcement of Aon becoming the first client to join Avelia was made at Business Travel Show Europe in London today.
James Platt, Aon’s chief operating officer, said: “We believe there is an opportunity to chart a better path for both our firm and society to become more resilient and sustainable.
“As we help our clients make better decisions as they navigate the volatility and risk in managing climate transition, we are also making bold moves to mitigate greenhouse gas emissions.
“We are proud to be among the first to join this initiative in piloting a solution for SAF that will help Aon and others meet their emissions reduction targets and sustainability commitments.”
The Avelia pilot programme is designed to “tap into” the TMC’s global client base to “aggregate global demand” for SAF and encourage more production of the fuel, which can cut emissions by up to 80 per cent.
Amex GBT’s CEO Paul Abbott added: “This pilot is an important foundational step on our journey towards a net-zero world by 2050. As more businesses and organisations like Aon join this SAF pilot programme, market signals will grow stronger, making SAF more cost-competitive with conventional jet fuel.”
The TMC is also adding a new “virtual” assistant on the Amex GBT app, which uses artificial intelligence (AI) to recognise the user, answer simple requests and gather information before transferring the traveller to a human consultant.