The price of a ticket for a flight with Air France, KLM and Transavia will increase by one to twelve euros. This is necessary to partly offset the additional cost of the sustainable fuel that the airlines will use from now on.
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Since this year, France has been subject to an obligation to mix traditional fossil kerosene with at least 1 percent sustainable fuel (sustainable aviation fuel or SAF). A roadmap was also drawn up to go to 2 percent in 2025 and 5 percent in 2030.
There is no obligation in the Netherlands yet, but KLM and Transavia, which together with Air France form the airline group Air France-KLM, will also use sustainable fuel as standard from now on. For example, KLM will add 0.5 percent SAF for flights departing from Amsterdam.
The CO2 emissions of the sustainable fuel are at least 75 percent lower than those of fossil kerosene, and according to KLM SAF is therefore ‘in the short term the most important means of drastically reducing CO2 emissions’ in aviation.
But the costs for the sustainable fuel are ‘at least four times higher’, and that additional cost is passed on in the tickets. “The increase in ticket prices varies from one to twelve euros for a ticket, depending on the class booked (economy/business) and the distance to be flown,” it says in a KLM press release.
In addition, customers are given the option of purchasing an additional quantity of sustainable fuel on top of the standard addition. “Every euro that is voluntarily contributed will be invested in the purchase of sustainable fuel,” Air France said.
Towards zero emissions in 2050
The aviation sector, which is responsible for 2.5 to 3 percent of global CO2 emissions, aims for zero emissions by 2050. He is counting on non-fossil fuels for a large part of the reduction in emissions. Not only is the high cost price still a problem, production is also currently much too low.
In Belgium, too, the focus is on sustainable fuel. For example, Brussels Airport recently announced that it wants to build a mixing factory in the coming years where kerosene will be mixed with biofuel. Brussels Airport would thus become the first airport worldwide where this happens locally. The airlines Brussels Airlines, TUI and DHL would be the first to use this biofuel.
Sustainable fuel is made from, among other things, used oils or residues from forestry and agriculture, and there is also synthetic SAF. In 2019, it represented less than 0.1 percent of the 360 billion liters of fuel used by aviation that year.
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