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The first commercial flights using SAF took off in 2011, and it has since grown to become a key element in making air transport more sustainable.

Aircraft today are powered by liquid aviation fuel, made mostly from fossil fuel sources. Yet new fuels have been developed that have the potential to dramatically reduce aviation’s net CO2 emissions. With the global growth in air travel, the aviation industry is investing in alternatives to fossil jet fuels to reduce flight emissions. One innovation is sustainable aviation fuels, which are jet fuels created from waste products and other sustainable feedstocks that have the potential to reduce emissions by 80%. The development of alternative aviation fuels could be the key to sustainable air travel, contributing hugely to the industry’s emissions-reduction strategy.

What are sustainable aviation fuels made from?

SAFs are made using a variety of feedstocks and waste products.

Municipal solid waste: waste that comes from households and businesses. This includes product packaging, grass clippings, furniture, clothing, bottles, food scraps and newspapers.

Cellulosic waste: the excess wood, agricultural, and forestry residues. These residues can be processed into synthetic fuel.

Used cooking oil: this typically comes from plant or animal fat that has been used for cooking and is no longer usable.

Camelina: an energy crop, with high lipid oil content.

Jatropha: a plant that produces seeds containing inedible lipid oil that can be used to produce fuel.

Halophytes: salt marsh grasses and other saline habitat species that can grow either in salt water.

Algae: these microscopic plants can be grown in polluted or salt water, deserts and other inhospitable places.

Non-biological alternative fuels: these include ‘power-to-liquid’, which typically involves creating jet fuel through a process involving electric energy, water and CO2.

Other, more advanced, technologies are in early stages of development, such as solar jet fuel (or sun-to-liquid), which uses highly concentrated sunlight to break up water and CO2 molecules.

Can sustainable aviation fuels make flying carbon neutral?

Relative to fossil fuels, SAFs result in a reduction in CO2 emissions across the lifecycle. CO2 absorbed by plants during the growth of biomass is roughly equivalent to the amount of carbon dioxide produced when the fuel is burned in a combustion engine, which is simply returned to the atmosphere, meaning SAFs can be classed as carbon neutral over their lifecycle.

But, this doesn’t take into account the emissions produced during the production of SAFs, like the equipment needed to grow crops, transport raw goods, refine the fuel and so on.

Today, commercial aircraft already run on SAFs on a daily basis. If SAFs are mixed with conventional jet fuel, they can be added to existing aircraft without the need for adaptation to the aircraft or engine or the fuel distribution network.

There is a small chance that your next flight will be powered, at least in part, by used cooking oils or agricultural waste.

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Standing still in the face of an industry constantly evolving, aviation stakeholders are quickly realising that to stay relevant they need to adapt and align their practices more closely to their customer needs. As the leading aviation marketplace, Locatory.com, a family member of Avia Solutions Group, has risen to that challenge.

The aviation industry is experiencing a number of important changes. The automation and digitization of processes and services are one of them. The demand for it is also seen in the B2C sector when it comes to the growing needs of consumers. Toma Matutyte, CEO of Locatory.com, notices that the spare aircraft parts segment of the aviation industry is no different, and customer feedback only highlights the need for automation and efficiency.

“The current market reflects this demand really well – there are new technologies entering the industry, which, in turn, bring new needs for consumers. The ongoing innovation, the growing demand for efficiency and convenience have led us to bring changes to our marketplace platform this way answering the most pressing needs.”

The upgrades to Locatory.com’s spare aircraft parts platform are, too, bringing greater value and transparency to the overall user experience. It fully includes the user as a trusted player in the Marketplace. More user-friendly design and interface, enhanced customer support, and more efficient sending and receiving of requests are just some of the improvements made. Matutyte explains that these enhancements allow customers to use the platform in a more efficient manner, bringing the focal point back to simplicity.

Together with the Marketplace upgrades, Locatory.com also focuses on the rapid growth of the platform by expanding its Sales and Customer Support teams, which increases the user base. The optimization of Customer Support, for example, helps with more unique requests or situations. Some of them still need a professional to solve the occurring issues.

With a huge variety of aircraft parts in the Locatory.com marketplace’s database for both commercial and military aviation, the company is considered one of the leaders and game-changers in the aviation aftermarket business. Alongside that, Locatory.com also provides shipping services and offers an AI-based tool for procurement and logistics managers.

With the new upgrades and additions, the company is continuously evolving, creating new and enhancing existing technologies. This is driven by the constant search for newer and better ways of providing value to the customer.

“We’ve always been active in pursuing authentic user feedback and customers’ comments about the platform, as well as taking in recommendations,” notes Matutyte. “All of this allows us to provide world-class service that I’m sure will revolutionise the aviation spare parts marketplace.”

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Things can get chaotic when you have a complex international supply chain and thousands of part numbers. So, when companies make the wrong decisions, money is lost, and time is wasted. By upgrading their maintenance material strategy, companies will be able to ensure the success of their operations.

Here are three steps you should be exploring to get better aircraft parts support.

Step 1: Getting better human support

The importance of investing in a partner who offers personalized and dedicated customer support cannot be overstated.

It’s not beneficial to call a toll-free number to leave a message or chat with a customer service person who knows nothing about you or your operation. You must have a dedicated aircraft parts expert who can support you when you need it all day, every day.

Step 2: Automated aircraft parts requirement updates.

It is a thing of the past, having to chase vendors for order status updates or remind them to send you documentation requests.

The right technology should automate essential aircraft parts updates, so you have a centralized place to review all your material requirements, including past quotes, purchase orders, repair orders, and your warehouse inventory.

Step 3: Combining customer support with technology.

The best strategies combine dedicated human support with technology. Locatory.com Marketplace experienced international team has extensive experience worldwide and knowledge of corporate culture and background.

A human relationship helps you achieve your operational and personal goals while resolving complex problems. Through improved supply chain management, fostering stronger industry networks, and ensuring faster delivery of essential parts and services, Locatatory.com strives to address these issues. Process optimization also speeds up the process of listing or procuring parts in the Locatory.com Marketplace.

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We are setting out on a new and important journey for our company. To portray this exciting new road ahead, we have decided to rebrand our Marketplace design to represent ourselves more closely going forward.

This update has been a long time coming: our new Marketplace features responsive, minimalistic design and friendly color scheme. Redesigned with our users in mind to make an easy, seamless experience.

So, What’s New? After some in-depth research, market analysis, and talking with some of our customers, we felt the rebranding of Locatory.com Marketplace will enable us to expand upon our services, accomplish global growth objectives, and to foster and develop new customer relationships. This puts us in the position to be more competitive and proactive.

This isn’t just a new look for us as a company it is a way for a new path forwards our identity. Locatory.com Marketplace has evolved and continues to develop to a collaborative customer experience platform that’s easy-to-use.

Why Focus on Customer Experience? Short answer: in today’s world, the customer experience it is one of the main competitive advantage a business has. The best part about focusing on customer experience is that it’s an evergreen strategy. It works now and will work in the future. Finally, the customer experience grows the brand and reputation.

In Other Words. We know that this is a positive change for our company and will open many new possibilities! The update represents a leap forward for the company to align the brand with the new vision of being more than Marketplace for spare parts and repair capabilities and more of a community for aviation industry. Additionally, the Locatory.com will align with the user-friendliness and accessibility of the platform, as well as transmit the closeness of the customer support the company offers.

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Spontaneous love at first sight – that is how Agnė Januškevičiūtė, Customer Support Manager at Locatory.com, Avia Solutions Group subsidiary, describes her first encounter with aviation that lasts to this day.

Travel and tourism were something that has always fascinated Agnė. While still in university, she took on an internship at a tourism information centre, managing both work and study. This curiosity and excitement about aviation led Agnė to try out for a position as a flight attendant at a Lithuanian airline company back in 2015. “It was a quite spontaneous decision on my end,” she recalls. “I was only looking for a summer job, but once I joined aviation as a cabin crew member, I felt that I wanted to stay much much longer!”

Indeed, she did. After spending over three years as a flight attendant, Agnė worked with colleagues coming from different cultures and backgrounds – India, Italy, and Sri Lanka among many others. Agnė notes that most of her crewmates had other professions on the side as well. Some had education in law, others in IT, arts – but their real passion was aviation. “I love meeting people and hearing their stories or sharing experiences,” says Agnė, and for her, aviation is really the place where you can do so.

Travelling across countries and continents was another exciting part of Agnė’s workday as a flight attendant. “You start your workday in one country, and you find yourself wrapping it up in another one – that was really exciting,” she remembers. “Local colleagues would also make sure that you’re having dinner at the best spot in town or snap a perfect picture for your Instagram account. It really feels like aviation is a big family, spread all over the world,” Agnė smiles.

While working as a member of a cabin crew abroad, Agnė took a chance to switch up her focus and try her hand out in tourism as a tour guide, with plans to come back to aviation in a few years’ time. “It was a great experience, but I found it hard to be away from home for so long and started feeling homesick,” Agnė looks back. “I lasted only for half a year until I decided to seek career opportunities in my home country. That’s how I found Locatory.com and the Avia Solutions Group family, who all warmly welcomed me back to aviation. I couldn’t be happier now!”

Agnė‘s typical day as a Customer Support Manager is filled with emails and calls – looking after Locatory.com’s marketplace clientele. “I make calls to our marketplace users, help them if they have any issues or questions, organise webinars for new users and make sure that they are happy with our platform.” Agnė notes that this sort of work gives her a chance to be in the midst of all things aviation and allows her to communicate with people from all over the world. She adds, “Every day brings new challenges my way, but together with our team we are always trying to find the best ways to improve our work processes and enhance the experience for our clients.”

While challenges faced as part of cabin crew differ from those faced working as Customer Service Manager, Agnė agrees that on both ends, aviation is a dynamic place to be working in, and requires passion, dedication, hard work, and flexibility – things she learned throughout her career in aviation. “I think most difficulties come to pass when you surround yourself with great colleagues and are a part of a tight-knit team.”

For Agnė, Locatory.com feels like a family. “I do love my colleagues and I feel that this type of bond in a team is really important if you want to achieve good results,” she explains. “We all are working towards the same, one goal, but we find different ways to reach it. I am really grateful to all of them for their support and patience, especially in the very beginning, when I joined the team – they helped me a lot and I truly enjoy being here.”

She also notes that most of her proudest moments working in aviation were, too, achieved in a team. “It’s not that surprising,” she says. “As I mentioned before, it really feels like a family, when you work in aviation, and we’re always celebrating achievements of one another!” Agnė shares a few of those proudest moments from her time as a flight attendant – staying calm in stressful situations is one of them. She affirms that there have been situations where the cabin crew had to help passengers with medical issues, Agnė remembers, “I was always proud of our team during moments like these, how everyone remained very professional and knew exactly what to do under so much pressure.”

Having worked in aviation for quite some time now, made Agnė face other types of challenges – like still-existing stereotypes about women in this industry. Looking from a global perspective, there is still quite a low number of women working in aviation, and, while most of Agnė‘s colleagues – both cabin crew and at Locatory.com – are women, she agrees that there are still some stereotypes rooted in people’s minds when it comes to women working in aviation. “In general, aviation is the same industry as any other, and I’m sure that the number of women working here is increasing,” she stresses.

Hoping that the rooted stereotypes wouldn’t hold back any women from starting their career in aviation, Agnė encourages them to follow their dreams, this way breaking the stereotypes. “Working in aviation is truly a lot of fun – people are very welcoming to newcomers, always ready to help and treat one another like family. Once you join aviation, you won’t want to work anywhere else, trust me,” she adds.

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Standing out from the crowd in the already busy aircraft spare parts sector can prove challenging.

One company, Locatory.com – a family member of Avia Solutions Group, and the leading aviation marketplace for aircraft spare parts and repair capabilities – has already established its place as a recognised leader in the sector.

According to Toma Matutyte, CEO of Locatory.com, “Maintaining our company’s place on the market leader-board is just as important as getting there in the first place. That’s why adding additional relevance and importance for our customers and engaging with them in a more meaningful and more valuable way needs to be at the forefront of our thoughts at all times”.

Developing technologies to improve performance is an ongoing mission for many aviation companies, especially coming on the back of a global, industry-changing crisis. However, ultimately, it is the customer’s satisfaction that decides the fate of success or failure.

To stay relevant, forward-thinking companies need to constantly examine and reconsider their strategies and their relationship with their customers, suppliers, and partners. Again, according to the Locatory.com CEO, Matutyte, “While we constantly continue to develop our technology, the company’s present goal is to engage customers and potential customers through hyper-personalised outreach. Therefore, our goal is to enhance customer support and engagement, which we are sure will be reflected by an increased stock inventory, an increased number of premium suppliers, and a better more transparent customer sales pipeline. To achieve these goals, we are shifting our focus on rebuilding our customer service team to match the expectations of our clients, while also actively updating the overall marketplace itself. ” 

Engaging with customers in a more focused manner is only one part of the aircraft spare parts industry, the need also exists for suppliers to become more engaged and proactive for the relationship to work in harmony.

While the marketplace serves the needs of the ultimate customer, suppliers, it could be argued, would be better served to maintain their inventory and stock offerings and additional services online – regularly updating and refreshing their offerings – thereby playing a mutually beneficial role to benefit all parties in the relationship. Such engagement with a marketplace platform like Locatory.com would help to drive leads and RFQs, while also increasing the suppliers ranking in the listings.

Once again, according to Matutyte, “For the marketplace to perform at the highest level, every involved player has a role to play. For us, that role is to reach out to the direct needs of our customers and engage more effectively, while encouraging suppliers to become more actively involved in its growth.”

Locatory.com is a family member of Avia Solutions Group, a leading aerospace services group with what has become almost 100 offices and production facilities worldwide. ASG is significantly backed by the assets of over 7,000  highly skilled aviation professionals, serving more than 2,000 clients throughout Europe, Asia, North America, Australia, and worldwide.

Avia Solutions Group holds more than 500 licenses for its evolutionary range of activities across multiple business sectors. Its vast portfolio of services to clients include; aircraft leasing and trading, MRO services, business aviation and VIP airline procurement, charter and cargo aviation, pilot and crew training, recruitment services, together with multiple complementary services spanning a wide range of associated operations.