Aviation: In the absence of an alternative, European Companies Want a Deadline to do Without Non-Fossil Fuels

No solution: Major European airlines are threatening to ask for a “delay” in the face of European obligations to use more sustainable aviation fuels (SAF), because “(incorporation) obligations are not having the desired result”

The big ones airlines europeans said on Tuesday that they would be forced to request a “delay” in the face of the obligation to use more fuels of non-fossil origin (SAF). Unless the European Commission does not stimulate production on the Old Continent.

The European Union, as part of its decarbonization efforts, requires that an increasing portion of aviation fuels come from sources renewable. Set at 2% since the start of the year, their share must rise to 6% in 2030 and gradually up to 70% in 2050. These carriers had already questioned at the end of March the feasibility of the objectives of incorporating these sustainable aviation fuels into the tanks of their planes by 2030.

“Bonds do not have the desired result”
On Tuesday, members toughened their tone. “The (incorporation) obligations do not have the desired result”, said on behalf of the association the boss of the IAG group (British Airways, Iberia), Luis Gallego, for whom the production of these fuels comes mainly from outside Europe. “I think the situation will force us to try to ask for a delay” in the application of the road map, he added, “barring an extraordinary event”.

Carriers are demanding from the European Commission a “strategic dialogue” with the aviation sector, comparable to that established by the executive with the automobile industry, which for its part hopes for a relaxation of the ban planned for 2035 on the sale of vehicles new thermal engines.

Seventeen European groups (from Lufthansa to Ryanair via Air France-KLM and easyJet) have committed to achieving “net zero emissions” by 2050 like the entire global aviation sector. This currently contributes to 3% of CO2 emissions, but the effect of its activity on global warming is higher, because the devices also emit other gases and contrails.

SAFs are made from biomass, used oils and, ultimately, from hydrogen produced using carbon-free electricity, a technique that is still expensive and complex. “We are calling on both the European Commission and national governments to take decisive action, because we need help to encourage large hydrocarbon producers” to provide more SAF, added Kenton Jarvis, Managing Director of ‘easyJet.