PARIS: Under huge pressure to go green, the aviation industry needs to spend billions of dollars to become more climate-friendly in what risks ramping up fares and making air travel the preserve of the rich once again.
Like many countries, airlines the world over have pledged net zero emissions by 2050, as has the European Union, putting pressure on the aviation industry among other sectors.
The 27 - member bloc also wants to tax kerosene.
All of this will come at an unprecedented cost for the industry.
The International Air Transport Association IATA whose 290 member airlines make up 82 per cent of global air traffic estimates that the industry's green transition will cost around 1.55 trillion dollars In order to make that transition, airlines need to invest in the latest planes, more efficient than their current fleets.
Airbus for one hopes to see aircraft running on hydrogen enter service by 2035.
Meanwhile, a production chain for sustainable aviation fuel SAF that the EU is going to make compulsory in incremental proportions needs to be created almost from scratch.
IATA hopes to achieve two-thirds of its emissions reductions by using SAFs - organic fuels derived from non-conventional products including cooking oil and algae.
Fuel represents between 20 and 30 per cent of airline costs.
But SAFs are, as things stand, three times more expensive for those using used recycled oils, five times more expensive for biomass and five to ten times more expensive for synthetic fuels, Jean-Baptiste Djebbari, France's transport minister, told AFP.
He said it was crucial to scale up production to bring down prices.