Delta Air Lines gathered with Minnesota officials on July 27, 2026, to mark the completion of a new fuel blending facility at Flint Hills Resources' Pine Bend Refinery, a project intended to bring more sustainable aviation fuel to Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport (MSP) , Delta's second-largest hub.
Sustainable aviation fuel is made from renewable feedstocks and can cut lifecycle carbon emissions significantly compared to regular jet fuel. The new facility allows SAF to be blended with standard jet fuel right at the refinery, then delivered to MSP through pipelines that are already in place.
Delta burns through roughly 250 million gallons of jet fuel a year at MSP alone. Once running at full capacity, the facility is expected to blend up to 30 million gallons of pure SAF annually. Delta and Flint Hills Resources first announced the plan back in September 2024.
Delta President Peter Carter called the facility the result of years of work toward a shared goal. "This facility is the culmination of a shared vision for Minnesota to become a leader in sustainable aviation fuel," he said. "By expanding the infrastructure needed to support broader SAF adoption, it represents an important step toward turning that potential into reality."
The opening brought out figures including Flint Hills President and CEO Francis Murphy, Ecolab's Nick Alfano, Greater MSP's Peter Frosch, US Senator Amy Klobuchar, Governor Tim Walz, Congressman Brad Finstad, Speaker Lisa Demuth, and Senator Ann Rest.
The facility is one of four milestones tied to the Minnesota SAF Hub, a coalition Delta helped launch in 2023 alongside the Greater MSP Partnership, Bank of America, Ecolab, and Xcel Energy to grow a regional SAF supply. Jet fuel accounts for around 90% of Delta's carbon emissions, and the airline has a goal of running on 10% SAF by 2030 toward net zero emissions by 2050.
