The UK needs rules to deter airlines from tankering fuel into the country, because its higher target for blending sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) will lead to elevated fuel costs compared with EU aviation hubs, airline group IAG said today.
Refuelling at UK airports will probably become "materially" more expensive than EU hubs by the end of the decade, because the UK's annually rising target will reach 8.2pc by 2029 while the EU target will stay flat at 2pc, only jumping to 6pc in 2030, IAG sustainability officer Jonathan Counsell told delegates at the SAF Global Summit in London.
The difference could encourage airlines to load extra fuel at EU departure hubs to avoid refuelling in the UK for their return flight. IAG's company policy is to avoid tankering because of resultant higher emissions, he said. Extra weight leads to more aircraft emissions.
The UK's higher costs could also lead to some "carbon leakage" if airlines avoid its airports in favour of EU competitors, he said.
A way to solve the imbalance would be for the EU to adopt gradual annual increases, which may lessen the disparity. But even that may not fully solve the 2029 disparity because of the UK's more aggressive target.
Italian integrated Eni hopes the European Commission could introduce "smoother" year-on-year targets in its expected 2027 review of the ReFuelEU legislation, the company's head of biofuels business development and analytics Paolo Torelli said.
Eni and other EU fuel suppliers have called for annual targets between the headline targets.
