Episode Details

🎙 EPISODE SNAPSHOT

Welcome to The Bryan Air Podcast. Career intelligence for pilots.

We break down executive moves, economic forces, and the technology reshaping how pilots are trained, assessed, and employed. Boardroom decisions land on your flight deck — we translate them first. No corporate spin. Just the intelligence pilots actually need.

Sustainable aviation fuel accounts for 0.8% of global jet fuel consumption. That is not a typo. Dr Marie Owens Thomsen, IATA's Senior Vice President for Sustainability and Chief Economist, sits down with Bryan in Singapore to explain why the SAF market barely exists, why European mandates have driven prices up without cutting a single ton of CO2, and why investors are pouring billions into AI data centres while aviation fuel gets 1.2% of global energy investment. In an industry running on 3.9% profit margins, the question is not whether airlines want to decarbonize. It is whether anyone has built a system that lets them do it without going broke. Thomsen lays out what needs to change and why aviation cannot solve this alone.

In this episode of The Bryan Air Podcast, Bryan Roseveare speaks with Dr Marie Owens Thomsen, IATA's Senior Vice President for Sustainability and Chief Economist, live at IATA WDS 2026 in Singapore about sustainable aviation fuel supply, European SAF mandates, investment risk, AI energy competition, airline profit margins, and career advice for young pilots.

✈ TIME-STAMPED FLIGHT PLAN

00:00 Introducing Dr Marie Owens Thomsen at IATA WDS 2026

00:39 Why collaboration across the industry is no longer optional

02:08 What IATA's sustainability and economics division actually does

04:24 SAF supply reality: 0.8% of global jet fuel and barely a market

06:00 European mandates raised prices and cut zero emissions

08:31 Why investors see too much risk and too little return in SAF

11:00 AI data centres competing for the same renewable energy

13:17 Advice for young pilots: lifelong learning and complementary skills

15:42 Closing thanks and farewell from Singapore

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