The European Commission announced this week that 53 airline operators will receive around 1.3 million allowances, worth approximately €100 million, for the use of sustainable aviation fuels (SAF) in their 2024 operations.

The reward comes from a mechanism designed to encourage aircraft operators to integrate SAF into their fuel mix. For this purpose, a total of 20 million EUAs have been allocated for 2024–2030, worth around €1.5 billion.

Because SAF is significantly more expensive than conventional fuel, this support system “covers all or part of the price difference between fossil kerosene and the eligible SAF used by individual commercial aircraft operators on their flights covered by effective carbon pricing through the EU ETS.”

In addition, the EU ETS rewards airlines for using sustainable aviation fuels by exempting SAF-related emissions from compliance obligations: “Operators are not required to surrender allowances for the use of these fuels, an advantage worth around €25 million in 2024,” says the Commission.

For 2024 operations, the biggest beneficiary by far was Air France, which received around 20% of the entire allocation. Spain had the largest number of operators (10), followed by France (8) and Sweden (5).

The ReFuelEU Aviation Regulation has set a minimum supply mandate for SAF in Europe, starting at 2% in 2025, rising to 6% in 2030, and reaching 70% by 2050.