In India, the International Air Transport Association (IATA) announced that it expects SAF production to reach 2 million tons or 0.7% of airlines’ total fuel consumption in 2025. “While it is encouraging that SAF production is expected to double to 2 million tons in 2025, that is just 0.7% of aviation’s total fuel needs. And even that relatively small amount will add $4.4 billion globally to the fuel bill. The pace of progress in ramping up production and gaining efficiencies to reduce costs must accelerate,” said Willie Walsh, IATA’s Director General. Most SAF is now heading toward Europe, where the EU and UK mandates kicked in on 1 January 2025, IATA said, adding that the cost of SAF to airlines has now doubled in Europe because of compliance fees that SAF producers or suppliers are charging. For the expected one million tons of SAF that will be purchased to meet the European mandates in 2025, the expected cost at current market prices is $1.2 billion. Compliance fees are estimated to add an additional $1.7 billion on top of market prices—an amount that could have abated an additional 3.5 million tons of carbon emissions. Instead of promoting the use of SAF, Europe’s SAF mandates have made SAF five times more costly than conventional jet fuel, according to the organization.
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