Aeroports de Paris SA chief executive officer Philippe Pascal says sustainable aviation fuels will be three to four times more expensive than kerosene, which will translate into more expensive airplane ticket prices.
(March 28): The operator of the main Paris airports predicted an increase in air fares in coming years to compensate for the use of expensive alternative aviation fuel, weighing on travel demand into the world’s most popular tourist destination.
Aeroports de Paris SA (ADP) expects to process 105 million passengers in 2050 at its key Charles de Gaulle hub north of Paris, up from 70 million passengers last year, chief executive officer Philippe Pascal said on Thursday. That’s well below a pre-Covid-19 projection of 168 million passengers. Sustainable aviation fuels (SAF) will be three to four times more expensive than kerosene, which will translate into more expensive airplane tickets prices, he said.
“Not immediately, but at some point this will weigh on demand for air travel,” Pascal said of the higher cost of SAF. “It won’t reduce traffic, but it will slow down the dynamic.”
Europe’s airline industry is at risk of falling behind on environmental targets that some carriers say are becoming increasingly costly and difficult to reach. An effort to reach a wider use of sustainable aviation fuel by 2030 will be hard, IAG SA CEO Luis Gallego said at a separate event on Thursday.
ADP will spend €3.5 billion (RM16.78 billion) to €4.5 billion by 2035 to extend and upgrade the three existing terminals at Charles de Gaulle airport, adding more departure lounges, metro lines as well as bike lanes for employees, the CEO said.
The French government, which owns 51% of ADP, had previously scrapped a €9 billion plan to build a new terminal that would have served 40 million additional passengers a year after the Covid-19 pandemic brought global air travel to a standstill.
Charles de Gaulle and Orly airport, which lies south of Paris, are both under pressure to contain emissions and noise levels as part of their growth strategy. The airports compete with the likes of Heathrow, Amsterdam and Frankfurt for passengers into Europe, while mega hubs like Istanbul or Dubai are taking more business for global transfer flights.
Amsterdam’s Schiphol airport has sought to reduce its capacity amid demands to curtail noise.
““We are trying to find the right balance between development of the airport and decarbonization,” Pascal said. “We want to rely on existing infrastructure as much as possible.”
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