The European Commission (EU) has adopted a new decision on Sept. 8, 2026, allocating EU Emissions Trading System (ETS) allowance to airlines for using sustainable aviation fuels (SAF) in 2025.
Sustainable Aviation Fuels support increases
The EU ETS support for SAF commitment in 2025 amounted to approximately 5.2 million ETS allowances, worth €430 million which was distributed among 130 airlines. It marks a major step in the EU’s efforts to increase SAF adoption among carriers and reduce the aviation industry’s carbon footprint.
The calculations, based on Member States’ data for commercial airlines and marks another key step in applying additional support mechanism to promote SAF uptake.
SAF support has significantly increased in the EU as the 2025 distribution of support was over four times as much as previous years. The total amount of SAF claimed in 2025 was over 530,000 tonnes, consisting of biofuels and advanced biofuels, which added up to about 1.7 million tonnes of CO2 reduction.
The EU ETS Directive
The EU’s ETS Directive was introduced in 2023 to accelerate the use of SAF by granting free EU ETS allowances for the uptake of these fuels. Starting in 2024, 20 million EU ETS allowances, worth around €1.5 billion, are being used for this purpose.
Airlines that participate in the EU’s directive are treated equally under this support system. To name a few airlines that have received the EU’s ETS support, these airlines include; Ryanair, Air France, SWISS Airlines, Atlantic Airways and TAROM to name a few out of the 130 airlines who are involved in the directive.
Moreover, the support system also covers all or part of the price difference between fossil kerosene and the eligible SAF used by individual airlines on their flights covered by effective carbon pricing through the EU ETS.
In July 2026, the EU Commission proposed an increase to this mechanism with an additional 110 million allowances reserved from wider application to aviation emissions, as part of the new EU ETS review.
The additional ETS support is expected to amount to around €15 billion and will also support electrification of aircraft and continue to address aviation’s non-CO2 climate impacts.
What do you think about the EU’s ETS support of airlines? Will it help CO2 emissions reduction in the future? Let us know your thoughts in the comments.
