Within the framework of the second ALTA Fuel & Sustainability Conference taking place in Bogotá, Colombia, the commercial aviation industry of Latin America and the Caribbean once again called for incentives and a regulatory framework that lays a solid foundation for increasing investments in the development and production of Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF).

The event officially opened on March 13th in the Colombian capital. On its first day of public activity, various panels addressed the issue of SAF production, existing projects in the region, and the needs of the stakeholders involved in the process of energy transformation to increase the number of liters produced, which is extremely low even despite Latin America’s favorable conditions for the proliferation of the necessary feedstocks.

In the presentations, airlines, fuel producers, airport representatives, and other actors in the regional aviation logistics chain shared their views on the problem and focused on the challenges of the current situation, which placed the region far from the goals set by the different industry agreements for 2030/2050.

Beyond the central issue of sustainable aviation fuel, its technical and regulatory complexities, and the gap between current and expected production, there was room for the presentation of various sustainability strategies by the airlines and for the presentation of medium and long-term projections.

Thus, it was observed that forecasts indicate that in 2024, the aeronautical industry will experience a slowdown in the growth of demand, driven by economic uncertainty in some of its main markets and that fuel imports will be reduced due to the growth of domestic production in many of the region’s countries.

The ALTA Fuel & Sustainability Conference 2024 will close on March 14th, with a new session addressing issues such as the advancement of hydrogen technologies, carbon offset projects, and Ascent projects in Latin America.