Expensive flights become new normal on $5t green transition

The global airline industry has long warned passengers they’ll eventually have to pay some of the $5t cost of decarbonizing air travel. The moment has come. Singapore’s government has announced a tax on air fares to fund purchases of pricey sustainable aviation fuel, while neighboring Malaysia has authorized carriers to charge people a carbon levy from next month. In Europe, airlines this year lose one quarter of their free emissions allowance, the first in a series of reductions that’s already estimated to be adding to ticket prices. “We’ve entered a new era,” said Rico Luman, a transport, logistics and automotive economist at ING Groep NV in Amsterdam. “Flying will turn more expensive.” While the policies differ from country to country, the common goal is to clean up an aviation industry that for a century has relied on fossil fuels to function. Airline chiefs fret that unless they show they’re serious about cutting emissions right now, they’ll face fines, flying limits or — worst of all — be grounded completely. Sustainable aviation fuel, a cleaner-burning liquid made from waste oils or agricultural feedstock, is the industry’s primary means of reaching its 2050 net zero target. But the new fuel is in short supply and can be more than double the price of normal jet kerosene, leaving airlines little choice but to pass the cost onto passengers. It means little price respite for flyers who’ve been whacked by soaring prices since air travel resumed after the pandemic. Now, they’ll have to pay to neutralize aviation’s carbon footprint, too. “That change is expensive,” Kiri Hannifin, Air New Zealand Ltd.’s chief sustainability officer, said in an interview this week. “We do need to start talking to Kiwis about what flying is doing, why it’s impactful, why we’ve got to change.” <br/>