Brussels Airport Company, thanks to federal government support, will be granting a special financial contribution to promote the use of sustainable aviation fuel (SAF).

One year ago, Brussels Airport announced the first delivery of SAF via the NATO pipeline.

However the high price of SAF remained an obstacle and slowed down its use by airlines.

This new SAF incentive will be available to all airlines, for all flights taking off from Brussels Airport in 2024.

Increasing the use of SAF is a priority for the airport and this programme has been accepted by the Belgian government.

Georges Gilkinet, Minister of Mobility, said: “Just as the aviation sector must use every means at its disposal to reduce its ecological footprint, we must, in Belgium and across Europe, use all the levers available to accelerate this movement. Thanks to this unique support mechanism, next year we will encourage companies to opt for SAF rather than fossil fuel: this is one concrete way, among others, of testing this means of reducing CO2 emissions in the aviation sector on a large scale.”

The SAF incentive will be made available to all passenger and cargo airlines, for both short-haul and long-haul flights departing from Brussels Airport, in the course of 2024.

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The SAF incentive amounts to a maximum of 200,000 euros per airline, which should enable them to cover up to 80% of the additional cost of using this fuel.

“Increasing the use of SAF as an aviation fuel is a key element in the aviation sector’s ambition to reduce its CO2 emissions to zero by 2050,” added Arnaud Feist, CEO of Brussels Airport Company.

“The SAF incentive programme is one of the measures that Brussels Airport Company wanted to take to accelerate the sustainable development of aviation and promote the use of sustainable aviation fuels.”