Budget airlines say EU sustainable fuel quotas should apply to all flights

Ryanair, Easyjet and other low-cost airlines have written to the EU asking that its plan to force carriers to use a certain share of sustainable fuels apply to all flights, not just short-haul ones. The EC is drawing up targets for airlines to use a minimum share of sustainable aviation fuels (SAF), to curb the sector’s planet-warming CO2 emissions. In December Brussels shelved a draft 5% target for 2030 for being too low. A group of budget airlines, which do not compete in long-haul markets, and environmental groups wrote to the Commission on Wednesday, asking that any SAF quotas apply not only to flights inside Europe, but also long-haul trips to and from the continent. “Excluding long-haul flights from the SAFs mandate would mean the very area of our sector that most needs to decarbonise would not be covered at all by this legislation,” said the letter to the EU’s climate and transport policy chiefs.<br/>