WIZZ AIR's UK chief has warned it will be a "slow process" to make sustainable aviation fuels (SAF) affordable, tempering expectations for the substance that has become a key pillar of the sector's route to decarbonise.

Marion Geoffroy told City A.M. "it's going to be a slow process because of course, we need to have the fuel, the SAF, available and at a cost, which it was until recently, seven times more expensive than fossil fuels. We cannot afford that."

Geoffroy said the biofuel, which is made from food waste such as cooking oil and plants, was "getting cheaper as production increases" and ahead of looming mandates from the EU and UK.

But she warned "we need to have production available at affordable costs and that's going to take a long time until we get to new technologies."

Geoffroy's comments echo quiet concerns in the sector over the cost and difficulty of decarbonising aviation - one of the most polluting industries in the world.

Airlines are banking on SAF as central to hitting net-zero targets but it currently accounts for around one per cent of the global fleet's fuel consumption.

According to a report from Bain and Co, SAF will remain up to four times higher than the cost of jet fuel until 2050.

Geoffries said airlines had been overstating the importance of SAF at the expense of engineering tweaks and route changes, which can greatly reduce a plane's emission output.

"Prioritising younger, more modern fleets and higher class engines would "contribute the most to CO2 levels," Geoffroy said.

(c) 2023 City A.M., source Newspaper