Brussels Airport has announced “an incentive programme” for 2024 to promote the use of sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) by subsidising airlines’ SAF costs.
Special financial aid
Calling SAF “one of the most promising solutions to enable the transition to climate-neutral flying by 2050” and noting that airlines are “definitely interested in switching to this type of fuel”, the Brussels Airport Company has said in a statement that over the coming twelve months it will make “a maximum of 200,000 euros” available per airline. It calculates this figure will enable carriers to cover up to 80% of the additional costs of using the fuel. High prices and raw material availability are currently severely limiting factors for production of SAF at scale.
The “special financial contribution” is being made possible thanks to federal government support to the tune of two million euros for “projects designed to make the aviation industry more sustainable”.
Open to all
All carriers with flights departing from Brussels Airport in 2024 are eligible to receive the funds, including passenger and cargo airlines, flying either short-haul or long-haul flights.
While some high profile SAF flights have garnered media attention, Belgium’s Mobility Minister Georges Gilkinet hailed what he termed the “unique support mechanism”, which he said would “encourage companies to opt for SAF rather than fossil fuel: this is one concrete way, among others, of testing this means of reducing CO2 emissions in the aviation sector on a large scale.”
Placing the subsidy in the context of a “new system of variable charges of air traffic control skeyes for airlines, designed to encourage greener and quieter aviation”, Gilkinet said the “measures will make it possible to reduce the carbon footprint of flights departing from our national airport.”
Faster than the European target
Having only taken its first delivery of SAF via the NATO pipeline a year ago, Brussels Airport Company is participating in one of three so-called “green deal airport projects” and has been awarded around 25 million euros in European Commission funds. As a result the company has set a European Stargate goal of five per cent SAF as a proportion of all kerosene use at the hub by 2026.
Pointing out that this is “faster than the European target”, Arnaud Feist, CEO of Brussels Airport Company, said “We are happy that the federal government has accepted our proposal for a SAF incentive,” adding, “We want to fully commit to this together with our airline partners.”
