During the Airlines for Europe (A4E) aviation summit on 20 March, CEOs of major airlines discussed the future of European aviation, especially in terms of what the sector needs from the next European legislative term to aid in its decarbonisation mission.
“The next few years provide a real opportunity for change and today we are setting out how we want to future-proof flying and have also unveiled our commitment to Europeans”, said A4E Managing Director Ourania Georgoutsakou. “We are today making a Pledge to improve the future of flying but can only do this if policymakers make the vital changes to support our decarbonisation efforts, providing real airspace reform, ensuring our sector remains competitive and completing a true single aviation market.”
In the debate between Luis Gallego (IAG), Johan Lundgren (easyJet), Benjamin Smith (Air France-KLM), Carsten Spohr (Lufthansa) and Michael O’Leary (Ryanair), the CEOs said they are already spending billions on innovative technology like new aircraft and engine technology, as well as Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF), but they need government support, particularly for SAFs and the Single European Sky (SES) initiative.
1. What do you want? SAF.
When asked by moderator Richard Quest, International Business Correspondent at CNN, “What do you want?”, the instantaneous reply was “SAF.” “Right now, 90% of the investment in SAF plants is in the US. We want SAF in Europe. We don’t mind the mandate because we are going to comply with that, but we just need SAF”, Gallego said.
“The supply is not there at the moment, the supply is not there in Europe because almost all of international investment is going into SAF production in the US under the IRA”, O’Leary added. “We as airlines and our customers are paying hundreds of millions of dollars every year in ETS [Emissions Trading System]. This environmental tax should be used to incentivise the fuel companies to produce SAFs in significant volumes between now 2030.”
For the CEOs, there is no question over whether or not to use SAF, the problem is that, on the one hand, supply is very limited and, on the other, there aren’t enough incentives for European fuel producers to switch to SAF.
“I need it at a cost which is either the same for everyone around the world who are all obliged to use the same percentage, which would be a Level Playing Field with all of us, or I want it paid by my customers who are willing to spend more, which we currently do, or we need some government regulatory element like in the US where it’s not more expensive [than kerosene]”, Spohr explained.
2. Do any of you have any hope that there will be a Single European Sky before we either retire or die?
The Single European Sky (SES) initiative has been in the making for over two decades. Aiming to improve the performance of air traffic management (ATM) and air navigation services (ANS) through better integration of European airspace, in practice, it should result in reduced flight times (because of shorter paths and fewer delays) and, consequently, in lower flight costs and aircraft emissions. The stated benefits of the SES include the potential to triple airspace capacity, halve the costs of ATM, improve safety tenfold and reduce the environmental impact of aviation by up to 10%.
European institutions continuously fail to reach an agreement on how to implement SES and end up reducing its initial goals. The International Air Transport Association (IATA) has called the most recent attempt at reaching a deal a “failure”, saying that the SES2+ package “will gut its vision” to modernise European ATM.
“We’ve been sitting here and we’ve been having this conversation for many many years, but for a long time it’s been about how much it would cost the industry and about the disruption [it would cause]. But now there’s clear evidence, over six and a half million tonnes that goes in wasted CO2 could be saved”, Lundgren said.
Despite the clear benefits of SES and the aviation industry’s repeated calls for its adoption over the years, the CEOs remained somewhat pessimistic regarding progress in the near future. “We can do something tomorrow that we are not doing”, added Gallego.
Until a SES deal is reached, A4E promised to drive progress with stakeholders, including EU Member States, air navigation service providers (ANSPs), civil airspace users and militaries, that will deliver positive steps towards a more seamless and efficient European airspace.
