DHL Express and TotalEnergies have signed a supply agreement for five million litres of Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF). The partnership, initially set for one year, covers flights departing from the DHL hub at Paris Charles de Gaulle Airport. The first cargo aircraft running on SAF took off there on 9 November 2026. According to DHL, this makes the company the first express service provider to use SAF at Charles de Gaulle.
The refuelled aircraft fly from Paris to the DHL hubs in Leipzig, Casablanca, Milan and London. Regarding feedstocks, DHL refers in general terms to waste and residual materials such as used cooking oil. The press release does not provide details on the production process or the blending ratio of the fuel supplied, nor does it mention electricity-based eSAF.
DHL puts the expected savings at around 11,800 tonnes of CO₂ per year. This is based on a life-cycle assessment: depending on the feedstock and process, greenhouse gas emissions can be reduced by around 80 percent compared with fossil kerosene. According to the company, SAF already accounted for ten percent of the fuel consumed by its own aircraft fleet group-wide in 2025.
The volumes used in Paris will be incorporated into the GoGreen Plus offering. Under a book-and-claim approach, the savings are credited to customers even if their shipments are not themselves transported using SAF. Customers can thus claim the reductions in their Scope 3 reporting.
Source: DHL Group
Image: © DHL Group
