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The divestment comes at the behest of activist investor Elliott Investment Management, sources said, a group that has recently brought about a slew of changes to longtime policies at Southwest – such as introducing assigned seating and charging for luggage.
The activist investor “has come in and demanded that all SAF purchases have to be at parity with the cost of jet fuel, full stop,” one source said. “It kneecaps their ability to source SAF.”
“They’re shopping around SAFFiRE Renewables, trying to sell it,” a second source said. SAFFiRE Renewables was purchased by Southwest Airlines just over one year ago, in March 2024.
SAFFiRE is currently building a pilot SAF production plant near Liberal, Kansas, that will produce very low carbon intensity cellulosic ethanol from corn stover, which can be used to produce SAF via the alcohol-to-jet (AtJ) pathway.
The Kansas pilot plant project is supported by the US Department of Energy and uses technology from the DOE’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory. The original plan was for SAFFiRE’s cellulosic ethanol to be converted into SAF by LanzaJet, which is in the process of starting up a commercial-sized AtJ pilot plant near Soperton, Georgia.
SAFFiRE Renewables is a wholly owned subsidiary of Southwest Airlines Renewable Ventures (SARV), which is itself a wholly owned subsidiary of Southwest Airlines. One source thought that SARV could also be brought to an end, but this point was less certain.
When Southwest purchased SAFFiRE last year, Bob Jordan, Southwest’s chief executive officer, said that “championing SAF is a key pillar of Southwest’s Nonstop to Net Zero plan and our work toward a sustainable future for air travel.”
When asked, Southwest Airlines did not comment on the divestment from SAFFiRE Renewables, but stated, “Southwest continues to procure SAF and most recently signed a SAF offtake agreement with Prime Energy for 1.7 million gallons of SAF annually for a five-year deal, effective once Prime begins production.”
Prime Energy is based in Braggs, Alabama and plans to bring the initial phase of its Fischer-Tropsch SAF production plant online by the end of 2025. The offtake agreement with Southwest Airlines would represent the plant’s total initial production capacity, Chairman Tony Arand told Fastmarkets April 30. Prime Energy’s production facility will use biomass waste streams for feedstock, Arand said.
The comment from Southwest further stated that it is “seeking deals that align with our transformational efforts.”
Southwest has a standing agreement with Valero Energy from October 2024 to purchase a minimum of 3.6 million gallons of neat SAF over a two-year period, with delivery at Chicago Midway International Airport. The airline uses about 240 million gallons of fuel at Chicago Midway each year, according to its own press releases.
According to its most recent annual report, Southwest Airlines spent $5.8 billion on fuel in 2024, which accounted for 21.4% of its operating expenses. This percentage is the second lowest reported by Southwest in fifteen years, only slightly higher than the one given for 2020, when global air travel was significantly affected by the outbreak of the Covid pandemic. Fuel has been declining as a percentage of annual operating expenses for Southwest since 2011, when it accounted for 38% of expenditures.
In the same report, the company said “even a small change in market fuel prices can significantly affect profitability.” Within the report, the company also gave extensive reasoning for why its ability to utilize SAF could be limited, and that the company may instead use carbon offsets to achieve mandatory climate obligations or voluntary climate goals.
In 2024 Southwest consumed 2.19 billion gallons of fuel, according to the company’s annual report.
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