Refuelling
What we're filling up on
What we’re thinking about
Why SAF is both a climate tool and energy security asset
Genevieve Toh is Chief Marketing Officer at FlyORO, a Giant Leap portfolio company building the delivery infrastructure for sustainable aviation fuel (SAF). She came to FlyORO from a finance background and now leads the company’s commercial outreach across Asia, Europe and Australia. Their flagship product, AlphaLite, helps airports, airlines and fuel suppliers deploy SAF efficiently and at scale.
We caught up with Genevieve to talk about the state of SAF: how different markets are responding to the current environment, and where the case for SAF is heading from here.
Conventional jet fuel prices are spiking and airlines are pulling capacity. What are you actually seeing in the market for SAF?
It depends on the market. In mandated markets, the show still has to go on. Airlines need to comply with regulated quotas. For example, Finnair Group’s Q1 2026 numbers showed SAF consumption up 19 per cent year on year, about 3,700 metric tonnes, even though EU compliance costs (from carbon pricing under the Emissions Trading System and the requirement to use higher-cost SAF) jumped 27 per cent and overall jet fuel costs rose. In Europe, carriers don’t have the option to slow down, because the penalty price for missing the mandate is worse than the SAF premium they’re paying.
The strategic angle is that when conventional jet fuel prices spike, the premium gap between SAF and conventional jet fuel actually narrows. So we may start to see European carriers leaning into SAF not just for compliance, but as a hedge against fossil fuel volatility.
And in the US, where the picture looks softer. The policy environment has shifted under the current administration, and a lot of headlines around how committed airlines actually are to their SAF targets. How are you reading the market there?
I’d be careful about reading the noise as airlines abandoning SAF. The committed players are still committed. What’s actually happening is that airlines are being more honest about timeline challenges. Scale-up takes time, and the conditions for it have to be in place. That’s a different conversation from walking away from the underlying business case.
The real bottlenecks for SAF haven’t changed. We still need enough production capacity, the right supply chain, the logistics to deliver it, and the right economics for it to make sense at scale. That’s true in the US, and it’s true everywhere else. With scale comes price reductions. And once SAF is genuinely at scale, I don’t see why airlines wouldn’t adopt it. The Trump administration’s view on sustainability, and how the new policy framework actually lands, will shape how fast it happens. The underlying need for SAF doesn’t go away.
And FlyORO sits in a specific part of that supply chain. Could you expand on that?
We’re not trying to re-price the macroeconomics of SAF. We’re trying to fix the infrastructure gap that prevents SAF from reaching airlines efficiently in the first place. That’s what AlphaLite does. The macro story for SAF: feedstock, production cost, policy support is being worked on by a lot of people. The plumbing between production and aircraft is being worked on by far fewer.
The conversation around energy is shifting. Security and resilience are getting more attention than decarbonisation right now. Where does that leave SAF?
It opens up the audience for SAF. SAF has historically been pitched as a decarbonisation lever. What the current environment adds is a second pitch: energy security and resilience.
That broader case widens the demand pool for SAF. Early adoption has come from climate-motivated buyers, such as carriers and corporates with explicit decarbonisation commitments. The current environment is starting to draw in the early majority: defence, capital markets, investors and government, driven by fossil fuel price and supply volatility. Over the next five to ten years, that translates into a deeper, better-capitalised SAF market.
Australia is a useful test case for that, as over 90 per cent of jet fuel is imported.
Right. And in the current geopolitical environment, that level of dependency starts to look uncomfortable. In April, the Australian Prime Minister met with Singapore’s Prime Minister and signed a joint statement on continued essential supplies. That sort of meeting tends to happen when fuel imports start showing up as a national security concern.
The flip side is that Australia has been investing in domestic low-carbon fuel production for years, well before the current crisis. Australia has the land, agricultural residues, and feedstocks like sugar cane, tallow and canola, which are all already approved for use in aviation. The federal government has been building incentive structures around that production. So there’s a real opportunity to bring the 90 per cent import figure down through domestic SAF, and to frame that as energy security as much as climate.
Where does FlyORO’s work fit into the next twelve months, and then the five-to-ten-year view?
In the near term, the focus is on moving AlphaLite deployments forward with the airport, airline, fuel supplier partners and storage terminal operators. We’re working across multiple markets but our most active work right now is in APAC, particularly Australia and Japan. That’s the kind of work we expect to keep building out over the next twelve months.
The longer-term picture is what I’m more interested in. My honest read is that this period accelerates SAF, but a different kind of acceleration. It will be one that brings in a broader base of stakeholders. What we need to see over the next five to ten years is more feedstock diversity, more resilient supply chains, infrastructure that supports delivery rather than just pilot volumes, and committed offtake from airlines, governments and corporates working on their Scope 3. Short term, the interest is there. Medium to long term, it’s about building enough momentum to scale the ecosystem from there.
To follow what FlyORO is building, visit flyoro.co or their Linkedin.
Further reading
✈️ FlyORO and Aether Fuels have signed an MOU to pair Aether’s Project Beacon (the planned first commercial-scale next-gen SAF plant in Southeast Asia) with FlyORO’s AlphaLite. Project Beacon targets 2,000 tonnes a year of CORSIA-certified SAF from industrial waste gas and biomethane, with operations slated for 2028.
✈️ SAF in Australia. Australia burns 10 billion litres of jet fuel a year, all imported, with demand projected to rise 75% by 2050. Four major SAF refinery projects are now in planning, and CSIRO estimates we have enough domestic feedstock to cover around 60% of demand.
📊 Budget 2026. The federal budget includes $1.1b in new funding for low carbon liquid fuel, sitting within $12.3b of new emissions reduction funding this year.
✈️ Energy security and the SAF case. Jet fuel prices have roughly doubled since the war in Iran started, with US airlines spending 56% more on fuel in March than February. Airlines and SAF producers are framing SAF as both a climate move and a hedge against geopolitical fuel-price shocks.
More for the road
⚡ You cannot vibe-code a gigawatt. James Chin Moody’s argument: of the AI layer cake (apps, models, chips, energy), energy is where Australia has a natural advantage. Global data-centre demand is heading for 327 gigawatts by 2030, and the country with cheap, abundant power wins. Microsoft, Amazon and Blackstone recognise this and have already committed $69 billion to Australian data centres.
🏐 Built for people, or built for profit? At Blackbird’s Sunrise conference, Holly Rankin watched Anthropic engineers demo Claude Agents replacing twelve of fifteen scientists on a Great Barrier Reef project. She then drove 365km up the coast to her netball canteen and a Sunday market where none of it required a productivity gain. Her question: are our economic and political systems built for people, or purely for profit? Read here to find her answer.
💗 27 women’s health unicorns. Most people thought there were none. A report by AOA Dx, Follow the Exits, tallies $100 billion in women’s health exits from 2000 to 2025, with 276 deals and 27 billion-dollar acquisitions. 2025 was the biggest year on record. Companies got tagged as diagnostics or oncology rather than women’s health, so weren’t recognised. he next billion-dollar markets, per the report: menopause, cardiovascular disease and Alzheimer’s, all being examined through a sex-specific lens.
🥩 The Chinese consumer wants more than cheap. The Tianjin Meat Industry Association, which buys around 40% of China’s beef from Brazil, has committed to 50,000 tonnes of deforestation-free certified Brazilian beef by year’s end, paying a 10% premium for traceable, legally-cleared products. The trade picture has its tensions, but the world’s biggest commodity buyer asking for greener supply chains could change the math for some.
🧠 Purpose can’t be your armour. Blake Mycoskie, founder of TOMS, shares five lessons learnt since starting the company at 29, selling it at 43, and falling into the deepest depression of his life at 44. You can give away 100 million pairs of shoes and still feel empty. Success isn’t the same as being okay, and purpose can become a place to hide. His closing line: “You don’t need to achieve one more thing to be worthy. You already are enough.”
New paths
⚡ Amber is hiring across a range of roles including Enterprise Account Manager (London), Head of Client & Product Delivery (London), Customer Operations Manager (Melbourne), Customer Experience Specialist (Melbourne) and Customer Service Specialist for Vulnerable Customers (Melbourne).
🧻 Who Gives A Crap is hiring across a range of roles in Australia including a National Account Manager (Woolworths, 12-month contract), Director of Pricing & Revenue Management, Senior Product Manager, Senior Software Engineer, Senior NetSuite Consultant and Integration Specialist, Head of Marketing Operations & Planning (12-month contract), and Financial Planning and Analysis Manager.
🤖 Indi is hiring a Design Engineer (Sydney) and a Full Stack AI Engineer (Sydney).
🌱 Clean Slate Clinic is hiring a Founding Account Executive, Australia (Remote).
Save the date
📅 May 21: Digital Health Festival - Melbourne. DHF brings together the most influential leaders and innovators in healthcare with over 8,000+ attendees. Rachel Yang is speaking at the ‘Unlocking investment into women’s health’ session. Buy tickets here.
📅 June 5: [Re]Launch Pre-Accelerator Showcase - Melbourne. 16 Victorian circular-economy startups pitching after a 12-week pre-accelerator delivered with Boomerang Labs and Lifecycles. Register here.
📅 June 10: Climate Tech Charge 2026 Program Showcase - online. EnergyLab’s pre-accelerator showcases eight early-stage climate tech founders pitching. Register here.
📅 June 10: EnergyLab’s Breakthrough Innovation Driving Decarbonisation - Melbourne. A panel on supporting Melbourne’s climate tech ecosystem. Register here.
📅 11 June: CSIRO’s ON Translate 2026 - Melbourne. The program’s annual flagship event for the deep tech ecosystem, with a pitch showcase from the ON Accelerate 10 cohort. Register here.
Open for applications
📬 May 21: Apply for the MIT Solve 10th Anniversary Global Challenge. The challenge will identify ten bold solutions to scale with $100,000 in unrestricted funding and a stage during NYC Climate Week. Find more details here.
📬 May 22: Apply for EnergyLab’s Women in Climate and Energy Fellowship (WICEF). The 12-week online program for women looking to launch clean energy and climate tech startups, with weekly workshops, mentorship and a pitch night to climate investors. Apply here.
📬 May 28: Apply for the Future Investment Initiative Innovators Pitch. For builders using AI in Robotics, Sustainability, Health, and Education. Apply here.
📬 June 14: RMIT FounderHUB. A free four-week after-hours program for aspiring founders who are RMIT students, staff or alumni, with a pathway to up to $22,000 in equity-free seed funding through the LaunchHUB pre-accelerator. Apply here.
📬 June 16: 2027 Westpac Social Change Fellowship. Up to 10 fellowships of $50,000 each for Australian leaders working on social impact initiatives, plus a bespoke leadership program and lifelong Westpac Scholars Network membership. Apply here.