American Airlines, Google strike record SAF deal for 35 million gallons

American Airlines and Google on June 9 announced a 35 million-gallon sustainable aviation fuel agreement that the companies described as the largest publicly announced SAF certificate deal between an airline and a single corporate customer. The three-year arrangement is designed to unlock nearly 300,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent reductions, a size that matters because long-term offtake commitments remain the key currency for financing new SAF supply.

American will take delivery of physical fuel for Chicago O'Hare International Airport through existing infrastructure, while Google will claim the environmental attributes through the SAFc Registry to cover emissions from employee business travel. The SAF portion will come from waste feedstocks such as used cooking oil, keeping the transaction squarely in the HEFA lane that still dominates commercial SAF volumes.

The deal also enabled American to secure a new long-term SAF offtake with Valero Marketing and Supply Company, giving the carrier another supply line tied to a named buyer rather than an open-ended credit purchase. American said the arrangement was made possible by Illinois Governor JB Pritzker and the Illinois General Assembly enacting a SAF tax credit, a reminder that state policy is now a direct lever in aviation fuel contracting.

For American, the 35 million gallons are large on paper but still small against the carrier’s broader fuel demand. The airline said it used 2.9 million gallons of neat SAF in 2024, up 9.7% from 2023, and it is targeting SAF to cover 10% of jet fuel use by 2030. The Google deal alone equals more than 12 times American’s 2024 neat SAF burn, underscoring how far the market still has to grow even as headline commitments get bigger.

The transaction also fits into a wider push by American to line up next-generation supply. In late 2023, the airline became the first carrier to sign a long-term offtake with Infinium for eSAF made from waste CO2, water and renewable power, and in September 2025 it joined Alaska Airlines and other oneworld partners in a $150 million oneworld BEV Fund with Breakthrough Energy Ventures to back next-generation SAF technologies.

Google said the partnership builds on its own SAF activity, including efforts in Singapore and its first long-term SAF agreement. The SAFc Registry, a book-and-claim system meant to separate the environmental claim from the physical gallon, sits alongside the International Air Transport Association’s global SAF Registry, launched in April 2025 under Civil Aviation Decarbonization Organization management to standardize SAF transactions and support a global market.