**A strategic partnership for sustainable aviation fuel** Air Canada, the country's largest carrier, has joined forces with Airbus, the European planemaker with a major industrial footprint in Canada (including the A220 assembly line in Mirabel), to accelerate aviation decarbonization. The two groups announced the creation of a "Sustainability Co-Investment Platform" endowed with approximately $10 million US, aimed at supporting a Canadian SAF production project selected jointly until the final investment decision. This envelope is intended to act as a lever in an still-emerging ecosystem, provided that a "favorable public policy framework" is put in place, both companies insist. "Air Canada is proud to contribute to the energy transition of the aviation sector in Canada... we are taking concrete steps to support national SAF production... with sustained industry collaboration and a favorable public policy framework, we are convinced that this momentum can accelerate," said Valerie Durand, Vice President of Airport Affairs, Corporate Real Estate and Sustainability at Air Canada. **A climate tool targeting business travel** The initiative includes a dedicated component for business travel, through Air Canada's "Leave Less" program, which allows companies to partner with SAF volumes and receive verified environmental attributes associated with these fuels. In this context, Airbus has signed a five-year agreement and commits, for a first allocation, to over 60,000 liters of SAF to offset emissions from its business travel in Canada. Air Canada will monitor the greenhouse gas emissions related to Airbus's business travel and retire, on behalf of the manufacturer, the corresponding environmental attributes, in a logic of life-cycle emission reduction, even if these mechanisms do not substitute for direct reductions at source. "Decarbonizing aviation will require deep collaboration across the industry and decades of investment in new renewable energy sources," recalled Julie Kitcher, Airbus's Chief Sustainability and Communications Officer, highlighting Canada's "vast potential in raw materials" for SAF. **Fleet modernization and net-zero goals** Operationally, Air Canada integrates SAF into a broader strategy to reduce its carbon footprint, based notably on fleet renewal. The airline highlights the introduction of more efficient aircraft such as the Airbus A321XLR, a long-range single-aisle, and the Canadian-assembled Airbus A220, which deliver significant per-seat fuel consumption gains compared to previous generations. Air Canada and Airbus reaffirm their support for the "net-zero emissions" by 2050 goal championed by IATA, ATAG, and ICAO, in which SAF is considered a pillar alongside operational efficiency, new propulsion technologies, and offset mechanisms. Sustainable aviation fuels, produced from renewable feedstocks (waste, agricultural or forestry residues, used oils, etc.), have a chemical composition close to conventional kerosene but allow a significant reduction in life-cycle carbon intensity. **A multi-billion industrial and economic potential** The announcement is backed by a macroeconomic study conducted by Airbus with the ICF consultancy, which estimates that Canadian SAF production covering 40% of national aviation fuel demand by 2040 could add approximately $32 billion to GDP and create some 140,000 jobs in agricultural, forestry, and urban regions. Structuring a national dedicated sustainable aviation fuel industry would thus mobilize upstream agriculture and forestry, refining and logistics infrastructure, down to operators and airports. Air Canada and Airbus are working with the Canadian Council for Sustainable Aviation Fuel (C‑SAF) to align private investment, corporate customer mobilization, and public instruments (incentives, regulatory frameworks, project support) to make SAF price-competitive and available at scale. The challenge for Canadian air transport is to reconcile energy transition, industrial development, and maintaining the economic accessibility of air travel, in a context where the higher cost of SAF remains today one of the main barriers to its widespread adoption.