THE Metro Pacific group is looking to produce sustainable aviation fuel or SAF, an official of the Metro Pacific Investments Corp. (MPIC) said on Thursday, with the expectation that “most aircraft” will be required to use cleaner fuel in the future.

“Sustainable aviation fuel is I think catching on, and my fearless forecast is that most aircraft, not all aircraft, will be required to burn SAF,” MPIC Vice-President for Business Development Karim Manuel Juan G. Garcia said at an online forum on Thursday organized by the German-Philippine Chamber of Commerce and Industry.

“I can’t give you the details, but we are looking at producing SAF at Metro Pacific,” he noted.

“Another fearless forecast is in terms of carbon credits. I think in the future, when you buy an airplane ticket, you will have a charge there for carbon credits. I think that’s going to happen.”

Mr. Garcia also reiterated that MPIC Chairman Manuel V. Pangilinan is still “very interested” in investing in airports.

“But [on] how we assess the risks, this pandemic is different from the other shocks that we’ve experienced for airports. Whether its 9/11 (Sept. 11 attacks) or the global financial crisis, those were serious shocks for the airports and the airline industry. But the bounce- back was within a few days, a few weeks, or a few months. This one, we’re going on two years, and we’re still feeling the pain,” he said.

“First of all, we have to look at airports with more flexibility. Spatial planning is key. Before, redundancy and airport robustness were important; now, it’s… [about] how to utilize assets into more flexible assets,” Mr. Garcia added.

In terms of assessing the recovery and how MPIC looks at investments in airports, he noted that reduced capacity and “more volatile” traffic volumes are a reality in the earlier years.

MPIC was part of a “super consortium” that offered to redevelop the country’s main gateway in 2018.

MPIC is one of three key Philippine units of First Pacific, the others being Philex Mining Corp. and PLDT, Inc.

Hastings Holdings, Inc., a unit of PLDT Beneficial Trust Fund subsidiary MediaQuest Holdings, Inc., has a majority stake in BusinessWorld through the Philippine Star Group, which it controls. — Arjay L. Balinbin

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