The deal will see Virgin purchase 10 million US gallons of sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) a year for seven years via its minority shareholder Delta. The SAF will be delivered to Los Angeles and San Francisco where it will be blended with traditional fuel and used on more than 500 flights across the Atlantic.

The fuel is manufactured by Gevo using industrial corn. Sugars extracted are used to make SAF and the protein fed to livestock, with the resulting manure used to make renewable natural gas and fertilizer.

Virgin declined to reveal its annual fuel needs but said it planned to use 10% SAF across its fleet by 2030. “This new SAF agreement with Delta represents 20% of Virgin Atlantic’s 2030 SAF target,” it said.

Holly Boyd Boland, the airline’s vice president, corporate development, added: “We know that SAF has a fundamental role to play in aviation decarbonisation. The demand from airlines is clear and Virgin Atlantic is committed to supporting the scale up of SAF production at pace. We cannot meet our collective ambition of Net Zero 2050 without it.”