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Qantas to focus on SAF as electricity or hydrogen powered planes are decades away
November 28th 2025
Qantas Group has chosen to focus on sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) as part of its push to reduce carbon emissions instead of on newer technologies, Qantas CEO Vanessa Hudson said during a sustainability and decarbonisation panel at the Commonwealth Bank this week. Read More » “We want every person in the organisation to be on this journey. But … will I, in my lifetime, see an aircraft that’s powered by electricity or hydrogen? I don’t think so,” Hudson said. “Qantas, Australia, is quite geographically isolated in the world. We have to fly long distances, and the technology to replace fuel as a core source of propulsion – people are experimenting with it, but it is well, well, away, decades away, from being a real viable alternative,” she added. Hudson said flying had become far more affordable today than in the past, and she hoped for future generations to have the same level of access, but with less environmental impact: “My aspiration in 2050 is that our kids and their grandkids have the same access to the world because aviation has been able to decarbonise, and that there is still the opportunity to do that. I want to see for my grandkids that they’ve got the same access and it’s not super expensive, or it’s not significantly reduced because people are stopping flying.”
