Europe has a choice to make about the future of air travel.
Safe Landing recently submitted our response to the European Commission’s consultation on a new EU Aviation Strategy. View our full response here: https://safe-landing.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/EU-Aviation-Strategy-Safe-Landing-Response.pdf
At a time when aviation emissions continue to rise and governments across Europe are debating airport expansion, we believe this strategy represents an opportunity to chart a different course: one that pioneers new technologies, strengthens Europe’s industrial base, generates jobs and puts aviation on a genuine flightpath towards environmental sustainability.
Our core message: Europe can be a global leader of clean aviation.
As aviation workers, we know the industry is capable of extraordinary innovation. But innovation does not happen by accident. It requires clear goals, well-designed policy, and a willingness to move beyond business-as-usual. Innovative policy will lead to innovative technology.
Aviation is at a crossroads
The dominant vision for air travel’s future remains one of continued growth powered largely by conventional aircraft and fossil jet fuel, with the expectation that alternative fuels (or “SAF”) will eventually solve our industry’s environmental challenges.
We believe this approach carries significant risks.
Aviation is on track to become one of Europe’s largest sources of emissions as other sectors decarbonise. At the same time, many of the solutions currently receiving the most attention – particularly large-scale reliance on so-called “Sustainable” Aviation Fuels (or “SAF”) – face serious challenges around scalability, cost, and resource availability.
Instead of doubling down on a model that may prove increasingly difficult to sustain, Europe has an opportunity to become a global leader in a new generation of cleaner aircraft technologies.
Creating a market for cleaner aircraft
A central theme of our submission is that Europe should actively support the development and deployment of electric, hydrogen, and hybrid-powered aircraft.
These technologies are often discussed as distant possibilities. We think they can arrive much faster if policymakers create the right market conditions.
That means supporting a network of “pioneer airports” equipped for new aircraft technologies, supporting initial routes to create early demand, and ensuring regulations reward cleaner aircraft rather than simply protecting incumbent technologies.
We also argue that private aviation could play a particularly important role in the early adoption of zero-carbon flight. Private jet operators and airports are well positioned to become the early-adopters of smaller electric, hydrogen and hybrid-powered aircraft, helping new technologies scale and mature before wider deployment.
This approach would not only reduce emissions. It would create highly skilled jobs in aircraft design, manufacturing, testing, certification and operation in airports and airlines across Europe.
Carbon budgets, not endless growth
One of our fundamental proposals is the introduction of aviation carbon budgets.
The principle is simple: if Europe is serious about its climate commitments, aviation should operate within a defined carbon budget that aligns with the EU’s wider net-zero goals.
We propose an overall EU aviation carbon budget that is then allocated between member states and, ultimately, airports.
This would create a clear framework for managing emissions while encouraging investment in cleaner technologies and fuels. Airports would only be able to grow if they could demonstrate that growth was compatible with falling emissions.
Rather than treating environmental limits as an afterthought, carbon budgets would place them at the centre of aviation planning.
Finance mechanisms
We also call for significant reform of aviation carbon pricing.
Current policies fail to adequately address the majority of aviation emissions, particularly those from long-haul international flights. Meanwhile, a relatively small group of wealthy frequent flyers and private jet users are responsible for a disproportionate share of aviation’s climate impact.
We believe aviation taxes and carbon pricing should be redesigned to better reflect environmental costs, with stronger incentives for cleaner technologies and higher charges for the most polluting forms of flying.
Importantly, this approach can be designed in a way that protects ordinary travellers while ensuring those with the largest environmental footprint contribute more.
Contrails: the climate opportunity of the decade
One of the most exciting areas highlighted in our response concerns aviation’s non-CO₂ emissions such as nitrogen oxides (NOx) and contrails.
Contrails and the cirrus clouds they create are responsible for a substantial share of aviation’s warming impact. Yet they receive far less attention than carbon dioxide.
Research increasingly suggests that relatively small adjustments to flight paths and cruising altitudes could dramatically reduce warming contrails at relatively low cost.
We are calling on the EU to lead international airspace-level trials and establish targets for reducing non-CO₂ impacts. This could become one of the fastest and most cost-effective climate actions available to the aviation sector.
A different approach to “sustainable” aviation fuels
Our submission also challenges the assumption that “SAF” mandates alone can deliver aviation decarbonisation.
While alternative fuels will almost certainly have a role in aviation’s future, many current pathways face severe limitations related to feedstock availability, energy requirements and wider environmental impacts.
We argue that Europe should take a more holistic view of scarce low-carbon resources such as renewable electricity, sustainable biomass and green hydrogen. In many cases, these resources can deliver greater emissions reductions when deployed elsewhere in the economy before being used for aviation fuel production.
That doesn’t mean abandoning innovation. It means directing investment towards the technologies and infrastructure that can deliver the greatest overall climate benefit. And aviation can accelerate the wider decarbonisation of the EU economy without massive amounts of money and energy being needlessly wasted on thermodynamically inefficient processes.
Putting workers and citizens at the heart of the transition
Perhaps most importantly, we believe the future of aviation should not be decided solely by industry executives and policymakers.
Business leaders and likewise political leaders suffer systemically from short time horizons. The report to the shareholders coming up next month and the election coming up next year.
On the other hand, as workers in this industry, and as citizens of Europe and the world – we care deeply about not just what happens this year, but also future decades to come. We will be working, and living, through whatever comes our way.
Safe Landing’s response calls for the use of Workers’ Assemblies and Citizens’ Assemblies to help shape the next phase of aviation policy.
Workers understand the realities of the industry. Communities understand the impacts. Together, they can help design solutions that are both environmentally effective and socially fair.
We’ve already seen how deliberative processes can unlock more ambitious and equitable climate policies. Aviation should be no different.
Europe can lead
The aviation industry faces real challenges. But it also has enormous potential.
Europe has the engineering expertise, industrial capacity and innovative spirit needed to design and then to build the next generation of air travel. The question is whether policymakers are prepared to create the conditions that will allow this to happen.
Our response to the EU Aviation Strategy consultation sets out one possible flight path: cleaner aircraft, smarter regulation, stronger climate policies, and a transition that creates high-tech jobs while protecting the environment.
The skies are calling for change. Europe has an opportunity to lead the way.
You can read Safe Landing’s full submission to the European Commission’s EU Aviation Strategy consultation here and follow our ongoing work on building a sustainable future for aviation.