Potential tankering under an EU sustainable aviation fuels mandate
European Union (EU) policymakers are developing a mandate that would require jet fuel providers to blend an increasing share of sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) into their fuel supply at EU airports starting in 2025. This raises concerns that airlines might uplift additional fossil jet fuel at non-EU airports in order to avoid purchasing the more expensive SAF blends. This is known as tankering and is already a common practice where the price of fossil jet fuel varies across airports. Tankering saves airlines money, but increases systemwide fuel use and emissions and could reduce SAF sales under a mandate.
