European airlines call on EU to lower carbon pricing and SAF costs
In the UK, Green Air News reported that European airline CEOs meeting in Brussels have called on the EU to urgently address rising costs and a growing regulatory burden on the sector, identifying in particular the EU Emissions Trading System (ETS) and the impact of ReFuelEU’s sustainable aviation fuel mandate.
Trade body Airlines for Europe (A4E) said regulatory costs for its members have tripled since 2014 to $18 billion annually. It calls on the EU to bring ETS costs in line with the levels of the CORSIA international carbon offsetting scheme and work towards replacing the ETS with a strengthened CORSIA. A4E also demands immediate EU and member state action to rapidly bring down the cost of SAF and to postpone the “untenable” eSAF mandate, according to the report.
A4E members have in the past held different views on the scope of the ETS, with legacy airlines arguing the scheme should only apply to intra-European flights, while low-cost carriers like easyJet and Ryanair called for flights departing from European airports to be subject to the ETS in order to maintain, as they saw it, fairer competition. All A4E members have now coalesced around a common position that the ETS must not be extended to all departing flights from the EU, the report added.
Category: SAF
