The chief executives of 15 of Europe’s largest airlines have urged the European Union (EU) to abandon plans to broaden aviation’s carbon pricing regime, warning the move would raise airfares, weaken European carriers, and undermine a globally agreed alternative, according to a joint letter dated June 8.
In the letter, addressed to European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and two senior commissioners, the airline leaders—representing groups including Lufthansa, Air France-KLM, IAG, and Ryanair—called for “pragmatic” reform of the EU Emissions Trading System (ETS) ahead of its upcoming revision.
The signatories, members of industry association Airlines for Europe (A4E), reaffirmed commitments to net-zero aviation by 2050 but argued that current EU policy imposes costs their non-European rivals simply do not face.
The airlines’ central concern is a potential extension of the EU ETS to cover flights beyond the European Economic Area (EEA). Under current rules, the scheme applies only to intra-European routes.
Widening its scope, the CEOs argue, would redirect passengers, cargo, and emissions to non-EU carriers and hubs and thus risk the kind of international retaliation that forced the EU to retreat from a similar proposal in 2011.
The financial stakes are significant. The letter states that A4E member carriers paid €2.3 billion (over $2.6 billion) in ETS costs in 2024, with that figure projected to reach €5 billion (nearly $5.8 billion) annually by 2030.
Combined with the cost of the ReFuelEU sustainable aviation fuel mandate, European airlines say they face the heaviest decarbonization burden of any transport sector, as per the Draghi report on EU competitiveness.
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The signatories urged Brussels instead to align ETS costs with CORSIA—the UN’s global aviation carbon offset scheme—and to redirect ETS revenues into sustainable fuel agreements and next-generation aircraft technologies.
“Any extension of EU ETS will hamper the legitimacy of CORSIA,” the letter states, arguing that a unilateral European approach would erode confidence in the only multilateral aviation climate framework with near-universal government backing.
The Commission has argued that broadening the ETS would level the playing field between short-haul and long-haul carriers, and has expressed doubt that CORSIA alone is sufficient to drive meaningful emissions reductions to help reach Europe’s climate targets.
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