UK Export Finance (UKEF), the government's export credit agency, announced at the Farnborough International Airshow that it will broaden its eligibility criteria to consider a wider range of financing options for UK-based SAF projects. Business, Innovation, Science and Trade Secretary Jonathan Reynolds framed the move as part of a broader package aimed at driving growth, exports and decarbonization across the UK aerospace sector.
What Broadened Eligibility Actually Changes
UKEF is an export credit agency, not a domestic development bank; its core function is supporting UK exports through financing guarantees rather than funding UK domestic infrastructure directly. Broadening its eligibility criteria to cover a wider range of SAF financing options signals the government is willing to use export-finance tools more flexibly to support SAF specifically, intended to unlock private investment and help projects move from development into commercial production, rather than creating a new, dedicated SAF funding pot alongside UKEF's existing mandate.
Where This Sits Alongside the UK's Other SAF Mechanisms
This measure adds a financing-access tool to a UK SAF policy landscape that, as covered elsewhere in this series, already includes the SAF Mandate itself and the Revenue Certainty Mechanism's price-support structure for producers reaching FID. UKEF's role is distinct from both: rather than guaranteeing a fuel price or mandating blending volumes, it is aimed at the financing gap facing projects during construction and early commercial stages, a different link in the same chain of barriers first-of-a-kind SAF projects in the UK have faced.
The Broader Package This Sat Within
The SAF financing announcement was one part of a wider set of measures UKEF unveiled at Farnborough, alongside separate memoranda of understanding with Turkish Aerospace and British air taxi developer Vertical Aerospace, both aimed at helping UK aerospace and advanced manufacturing businesses access financing for international expansion. The SAF measure was framed within this broader growth and decarbonization package rather than announced as a standalone SAF policy.
What the Announcement Does Not Specify
Neither UKEF nor the government's own statement details the specific financing instruments now newly eligible, sets a funding cap, or names particular projects expected to benefit. The announcement establishes a policy direction, broader eligibility, rather than a completed financing decision for any named SAF project.
Source: GOV.UK, 23 July 2026.
