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MALTATODAY 10 July 2022

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2 maltatoday | SUNDAY • 10 JULY 2022 NEWS MATTHEW VELLA AIRLINE tickets will increase substantially in the near future as Europe prepares to legislate necessary rules to replace pollut- ing, fossil jet fuel with SAF – sus- tainable aviation fuel. Earlier this week, MEPs adopted a position on the draft EU rules, that will force EU air- ports to have flights uplifting a minimum share of SAF, start- ing from just 2% in 2025, right up to 85% by 2050. The proposed rules aren't fi- nal yet. To become law, they have to be agreed by negotia- tors from the European Par- liament and EU member states during so-called trialogue talks due to start in September. But experts believe SAF will cost Air Malta six times as much as jet fuel, according to previous statements by Air Malta officials to a Chamber of Commerce debate. A study by Amsterdam Eco- nomics and the Royal Nether- lands Aerospace Centre pre- dicts EU islands, like Malta, could be outliers that will suffer up to €60 and €70 ticket price increases. Spain, an example of a country deemed 'periph- eral' due to the larger amount of kilometres flown within the European economic area, could see price increases of over €65 in 2030 and then over €114 in 2035. In an online debate on the Fit For 55 targets organised by the Chamber of Commerce in 2021, an Air Malta official, Nadia Giordimaina, had re- marked that SAF costs were five times that of Jet A1 fuel. "And this might mean that the ticket prices we got used to are a thing of the past unless there is the necessary support," she told the panel. Flying has certainly become awfully cheaper in the last 25 years, opening hundreds of under-served European cities to a wider market of travel- lers seeking weekend trips and longer stays. Malta's tourism authority subsidises landing fees for low-cost giants like Ry- anair and Easyjet to bring more tourists. But SAF is now seen as the key to balance out the environ- mental cost of tourism, where the decarbonisation of aviation will be a necessary process over the next decade, and where price increases will finance in- vestment in technologies that reduce reliance on fossil ener- gy. The proposed EU regulation suggests that airports with 2 million or less annual passen- gers should not be covered by SAF obligations, a threshold that Malta's sole airport does not fall under. EU airports situated in the Union's "outermost region", such as the Azores or Canary islands, will not be subject to the SAF rules, given their dis- tances from the EU mainland. Failure to obtain exemptions The Nationalist Party spokes- person Peter Agius, a candidate for the European Parliament, is a regular critic of government failures to prevent Brussels reg- ulations from affecting Maltese industry disproportionately. "It's another case in which the government failed to adapt proposed legislation to cater to our specific situation of in- sularity and dependence on air transport," Agius said. "98% of incoming tourists to Malta reach it by air. Our econ- omy depends almost exclusive- ly on air transport and we don't have the same rail and road networks as Germany or Po- land. We do not have the same access to rail and road net- works as Germany or Poland." Agius said the government had prevented another case of Brussels 'one-size-fits-all' rules which, in this case, also includ- ed specific provisions for island territories. "It failed to make Malta's case for policies that cater to our specific situation." The impact of SAF on Euro- pean airlines will only be ana- lysed in five years' time, anoth- er niggling matter for Agius. "It will be too late to avert impact by that time. We need safe- guards for the Maltese econo- my before we adopt EU rules, 'Thing of the past': why cheap flights face price hikes Labour MEPs have voted against the European Parliament's negotiating position with EU governments over the introduction of sustainable aviation fuel: the reason are the added costs that could be added to f lights to and from Malta A study by Amsterdam Economics and the Royal Netherlands Aerospace Centre predicts EU islands, like Malta, could be outliers that will suffer up to €60 and €70 ticket price increases. Spain, an example of a country deemed 'peripheral' due to the larger amount of kilometres flown within the European economic area, could see price increases of over €65 in 2030 and then over €114 in 2035 "Due to the increase in price of flight tickets, citizens will not be able to travel via flight to their intended destination as the cost of air transport starts to become prohibitive. This is obviously all the more relevant for a member state which depends so heavily on the aviation sector for connectivity, tourism and economic development."

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