BERLIN (Reuters) – European Union quotas for sustainable aviation fuels (SAF), seen as an expensive but essential key to greener air travel, are not achievable by today’s standards, according to the chief executive of Germany’s Lufthansa .
The European Parliament on Wednesday adopted a deal to set binding targets for airlines in Europe to increase their use of SAFs, which have net-zero CO2 emissions or lower CO2 emissions than fossil fuel kerosene.
“From today’s point of view, it won’t work to have even the availability of the quantities that are demanded of us, not to mention the high costs that in the end the passenger will have to bear,” CEO Carsten Spohr said in a briefing with reporters on Thursday evening in Frankfurt.
However, he added, shareholders were now demanding “that the industry get better at this.”
Worldwide, SAFs make up just 0.1% of airlines’ fuel, versus 0.2% at Lufthansa.
The EU targets foresee 2% by 2025, rising to 6% in 2030, 20% in 2035 and gradually to 70% in 2050.
The CEO also said Lufthansa would participate in a consortium with German defence firm Rheinmetall to produce and maintain U.S. F-35 fighter jets, confirming an earlier report from Business Insider.
(Reporting by Ilona Wissenbach, Writing by Rachel More, Editing by Miranda Murray)
