FedEx secures 20 million gallons of SAF at five US airports

FedEx has signed new sustainable aviation fuel procurement agreements projected to deliver more than 20 million gallons of neat SAF across five major US airports through 2027, as the courier giant accelerates its push to source 30% of its jet fuel from alternative sources by 2030.

The agreements cover FedEx operations at Newark Liberty International, Oakland International, Miami International, John F. Kennedy International and Dallas Fort Worth International airports, with SAF expected to be delivered at blend ratios ranging from 30% to 50% depending on location, the company said in a statement Sept. 15.

The expansion builds directly on an earlier procurement phase in which FedEx secured approximately 5 million gallons of neat SAF from 2025, resulting in the deployment of 16.5 million gallons of blended SAF across five US airports.

The new agreements represent a significant scaling of that effort, with SAF blends now accounting for a significant share of FedEx jet fuel use at the named airports, according to the company.

Greg Paulus, vice president of Enterprise Sourcing at FedEx, said in the statement that state and federal incentives had been a key enabler of the latest round of agreements. "The latest agreements represent an expansion of SAF within the FedEx air network enabled, in part, by state and federal level incentives," Paulus said.

Market implications

The procurement scale and geographic spread of the agreements carry implications for the broader US SAF supply market.

By committing to offtake across five major hub airports through 2027, FedEx is providing producers with a demand signal that extends beyond spot purchasing, a structure that industry participants have identified as critical to unlocking investment in new SAF production capacity.

Karen Blanks Ellis, chief sustainability officer and vice president of Environmental Affairs at FedEx, said in the statement that reliable and affordable supply remained the central constraint on SAF market growth. "SAF is one of the most impactful decarbonization solutions available to aviation today and an important part of our approach to reducing emissions," Blanks Ellis said. "For the market to grow, supply needs to be reliable, affordable, and sustainable. Expanding our procurement allows us to employ more SAF in our network while bolstering the demand for greater production and scale."

The five airports named in the agreements are among the busiest cargo gateways in the United States, with Dallas Fort Worth, Miami and Newark serving as major international freight hubs and Oakland functioning as a key West Coast logistics node.

The geographic diversity of the procurement spanning the US East Coast, South, and West Coast suggests FedEx is working to embed SAF supply across its core domestic network rather than concentrating uptake at a single location.

FedEx did not disclose the identity of the SAF suppliers involved in the new agreements, the specific feedstocks or production pathways used, or the per-gallon pricing terms. The company also did not specify whether the agreements are structured as fixed-volume offtake contracts or as volume-range commitments subject to supply availability.

The company said it would continue evaluating opportunities to expand SAF use where supply, infrastructure and economics aligned with the needs of its air network, signaling further procurement rounds are possible but stops short of committing to specific volumes or timelines beyond 2027.

Platts, part of S&P Global Energy, assessed SAF California at 1,109.65 cents/gal and SAF (H-S) CA (credits det) at 651.83 cents/gal on Sept. 14, based on a spread of neat SAF to Jet Kero LA CA pipeline of 215.93 cents/gal. Platts considered SAF CIF NWE with transportation costs.