Luis Gallego – chief executive officer of International Airlines Group (IAG), which owns British Airways – has said airlines in Europe will be forced to raise prices to fund the cost of cutting carbon emissions.

This comes as Lufthansa recently announced a ticket surcharge to cover the “steadily rising additional costs” of new environmental fuel requirements.

Aviation accounts for approximately 3% of total CO2 emissions worldwide. It is considered a hard-to-abate sector because of a lack of technologically mature alternatives to traditional jet-fuelled engines such as electric or hydrogen-fuelled aircraft.

As a means to cut emissions, the focus is on the adoption of sustainable aviation fuels (SAF). Earlier this year, the UK government confirmed that the SAF mandate will come into force in January 2025, which will require at least 10% of all jet fuel in flights taking off from the UK to come from sustainable feedstocks by 2030.

Similarly, the EU, as part of its ‘Fit for 55’ climate protection...