Brussels Airport is set to incentivise airlines to adopt the use of sustainable aviation fuel (SAF).

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

The incentive amounts to a maximum of €200,000 per airline, which, according to the airport, “should enable [carriers] to cover up to 80 per cent of the additional cost of using this fuel”.   

The programme is part of a €2 million government scheme to finance projects designed to make aviation more sustainable and comes after the Belgian government in late 2023 accepted the airport’s proposal for an incentive to boost SAF usage.

Brussels Airport Company CEO Arnaud Feist said: “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.

“As an airport, within the framework of our European Stargate programme, we have expressed the ambition to aim for five per cent SAF on total kerosene use by airlines at Brussels Airport by 2026. That is faster than the European target, but we want to fully commit to this together with our airline partners,” he added.