Budget airlines seek EU sustainable fuel quotas for all flights

Ryanair, Easyjet, Wizz Air and other low-cost airlines have written to the European Union asking that its plan to force carriers to use a certain share of sustainable fuels apply to all flights, not just short-haul ones.

The European Commission is drawing up targets for airlines to use a minimum share of sustainable aviation fuels (SAF), to curb the sector’s planet-warming CO2 emissions. In December Brussels shelved a draft 5% target for 2030 for being too low.

A group of budget airlines, which do not compete in long-haul markets, and environmental groups wrote to the Commission on Wednesday, asking that any SAF quotas apply not only to flights inside Europe, but also long-haul trips to and from the continent.

“Excluding long-haul flights from the SAFs mandate would mean the very area of our sector that most needs to decarbonise would not be covered at all by this legislation,” said the letter to the EU’s climate and transport policy chiefs, seen by Reuters.

Its signatories included Easyjet, Ryanair, Wizz Air, Jet2 and the non-governmental organisation Transport & Environment.