Sustainable Aviation Fuel – Airlines will pay an additional cost of more than 234 million euros for the use of SAF in Spain in 2025
- The mandatory use of 2% of this sustainable fuel in 2025 will mean a total bill for airlines of 332 million euros
- ALA calls for incentives to scale up production and reduce the price differential to cushion rising costs in the airline sector.
Madrid, January 2, 2025. Airlines will pay an extra cost of 234.2 million euros this year 2025 for the use of 2% of sustainable aviation fuel SAF in Spain. ALA is calling for “ production incentives to scale up its development and reduce its price differential with respect to conventional kerosene”.
The president of ALA, Javier Gándara, said :
We are betting on SAF as it is the most effective short-term solution to advance sustainability in the aviation sector, but at the moment it is an underdeveloped product and its price is high, between 3 and 6 times more expensive than conventional fuel, so its use will increase the costs of airlines considerably. To cushion this increase, incentives must be established as soon as possible for its production,
This year 2025, the mandate coming from Brussels known as ReFuelEU Aviation will begin to apply, which establishes SAF use quotas ranging from 2% in 2025 to 70% in 2050. This year 2025 alone, the total bill for the use of 2% SAF in Spain will be just over 332 million euros, an amount that will increase as the share of this sustainable fuel progressively increases, especially once the use of synthetic SAF or eSAF, generated from renewable energy, is introduced.
2030 in the EU
Specifically, the additional cost that airlines in the EU will have to bear in 2030 when the SAF quota rises to 6% and 1.2% synthetic SAF is introduced will rise to around 9.5 billion euros (9,475.6 million).
This additional cost will have to be added to the payments for the trading of ETS emissions rights, which will become more expensive from 2026, when free emissions rights disappear, in addition to the fact that the supply of rights will be progressively reduced, with demand putting pressure on their price.
Gándara stressed,
It is necessary for the Administration to support air transport in its ecological transition, given that it is a sector that is difficult to decarbonise.
“That is why solutions that enable this transition must be favoured, including SAF. In addition, the development of SAF is an opportunity for the country that goes beyond the air sector, as it will favour reindustrialisation, Spain’s energy independence and, if done well, it can become a global exporting country. This means supporting its production and doing so as soon as possible,”
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Sustainable Aviation Fuel – Airlines will pay an additional cost of more than 234 million euros for the use of SAF in Spain in 2025, source