The Qantas Airways Ltd (ASX: QAN) share price is lifting off in early trade, up 2.41%.
Qantas shares closed on Friday at $4.36 apiece and are currently trading for $4.465.
This comes as the S&P/ASX 200 Index (ASX: XJO) is just about flat in early trade.
It also comes amid a new $200 million sustainability initiative announced over the weekend.
Today's morning boost will be welcome news for shareholders following a horror week for the airline last week, which saw the Qantas share price tumble 16% amid the wider market rout.
What new sustainability initiative was announced?
Qantas announced it will partner with Airbus to invest up to US$200 million to help establish a domestic sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) industry.
Qantas CEO Alan Joyce and Airbus CEO Guillaume Faury signed the Australian Sustainable Aviation Fuel Partnership in Doha yesterday.
Australia currently does not produce commercial quantities of SAF. That sees the nation exporting millions of tonnes of canola and animal tallow, which are then processed overseas into SAF.
The partners will invest in carefully selected, locally developed and produced SAF initiatives.
Qantas has previously committed to using 10% SAF in its overall fuel mix by 2030 to reduce its carbon emissions.
Joyce said the investment would speed up SAF development in Australia and create value for Qantas shareholders.
Commenting on the partnership with Airbus, Joyce added:
Aviation is an irreplaceable industry, especially for a country the size of Australia, and one that's located so far away from so much of the world. Future generations are relying on us to get this right so they too can benefit from air travel.
This investment will help kickstart a local biofuels industry in Australia and hopefully encourage additional investment from governments and other business and build more momentum for the industry as a whole.
It makes a lot of sense for us to put equity into an industry that we will be the biggest customer of. We're calling on other companies and producers to come forward with their biofuel projects. In many cases, this funding will be the difference between some of these projects getting off the ground.
The partnership is initially for five years with options to extend.
Qantas' investment in the Australian Sustainable Aviation Fuel Partnership includes A$50 million it has already committed to research and development of domestic SAF.
Qantas share price snapshot
The Qantas share price has seen its share of ups and downs over the past year amid oft-changing sentiment around the domestic and global travel industry.
Following last week's share selloff, the Qantas share price remains down 8% over the past 12 months. That compares to a full year loss of 12% posted by the ASX 200.
