The United Kingdom is seeking to subsidise payments to sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) producers through a levy that would help to keep the market for SAF stable, if draft legislation making its way through the British parliament is approved, though critics question whether flyers will ultimately pay the price.
The Sustainable Aviation Fuel Bill, currently on its way to the House of Lords, would guarantee a minimum price to SAF producers. The scheme would see payments to SAF producers topped up under certain circumstances, ensuring a “clear, predictable market price” by paying producers if SAF is purchased below a so-called “strike price”. In return, when SAF prices rise above that threshold, the producers would themselves pay into the scheme.
However, concerns have been raised about the impact of the levy on passenger air fares, with opposition MPs in the UK calling for a legal duty to monitor the effect on consumer prices in the aviation sector. But an amendment to the Bill to enforce that legal duty and protect consumers has not so far been passed.
MPs are debating the remaining stages of the Sustainable Aviation Fuel Bill today.
— Commons Library (@commonslibrary) October 15, 2025
The bill would provide a revenue support mechanism to increase the amount of sustainable aviation fuel produced in the UK.
Find out more ahead of today's debate: https://t.co/FAuPQ5DIeA
Instead, the youngest minister for almost two hundred years, Under Secretary of State for Transport Keir Mather, said the Government “is committed to delivering value for money” by “controlling both the scale and the number of contracts entered into, and through the prices negotiated in each contract.”
He went on to assure parliament that consumer prices would be “likely to rise or fall by less than the cost of a cup of coffee,” around “plus or indeed minus £1.50 (currently around €1.73) impact on air fares”. Mather added that the impact of the scheme on air fares “will be kept under continual review.”
Our Sustainable Aviation Fuels Bill has just passed its third reading in Parliament, bringing cleaner flights a step closer! 🛫
— Keir Mather MP (@Mather_Keir) October 15, 2025
Also delighted that @ExolumGroup have announced £4.5 million for a new SAF facility in Somerset – supporting jobs, national renewal, and net zero.
The cost of SAF and the viability of its production methods have been an area of ongoing tension for governments and aviation stakeholders around the world. Late in 2024, airline lobby group Airlines for Europe (A4E) demanded that European lawmakers create a Sustainable Transport Investment Plan (STIP) to mitigate the risks of investment in SAF production and to bring down the costs.
A4E said Europe needed a market intermediary for SAF, increased multi-year SAF allowances, ways to decouple the supply chain from users and strengthen the EU Emissions Trading System to prevent carbon leakage and boost EU competitiveness.
Aviation needs:
— Airlines for Europe (A4E) (@A4Europe) February 26, 2025
✅ A clear strategy anchored in the Sustainable Transport Investment Plan #STIP
✅ An industrial plan for SAF
✅ Stronger financing
✅ support for R&D in next-gen aircraft & ATM
👉Read our reaction to the Clean Industrial Deal: https://t.co/kzK7i7osV2 pic.twitter.com/n2xA135Ra8
Those calls were repeated in July 2025, when industry bodies came together to present a 10‑point plan to address market and regulatory imbalances and ensure the sector remains “globally competitive” and achieves “our shared goal of net zero emissions by 2050,” in the words of Stefan Schulte, ACI EUROPE President and CEO of Fraport. The European aviation sector will be obliged by the European Parliament to use 70% Sustainable Aviation Fuels by 2050.
