AIR TRAVEL Aviation soars to previous heights
FIGURE 60: ATTITUDES TO UK AIRPORT EXPANSION
Should the government expand, reduce or keep the number of flights from UK airports the same?
% of UK adults
Don’t know 18%
Reduce flights 18%
47% Maintain as now 0 Increase 18-24 Maintain 25-49 Reduce Base: 3,350 UK adults Source: YouGov, October 2024
FIGURE 61: Q3 FLIGHT PUNCTUALITY RATE AT MAJOR UK AIRPORTS 77%
%
10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80
0
77% 73%
71% 57%
73% 71% 69%
52%
74% 63%
59% 52%
76% 70%
61% 50%
75% 68%
59% 64%
58%
61% 59% 53%
39%
53% 59%
52% 42%
50-64 65+ 17%
Increase flights
%
15 30 45 60
% by age group
are calculated to reduce aviation carbon emissions by up to 70% compared with kerosene over the lifecycle of the feedstocks. However, the amount of CO2 emitted by an aircraft using SAF remains unchanged. The EU has its own SAF mandate with a
target of 6% SAF use by 2030 and 34% by 2040. Iata director general Willie Walsh warned in December that meeting the EU target “will be extremely difficult”, saying: “There is a belief if you mandate SAF it will be produced, but that is not happening.” Walsh noted mandates would result in fines for fuel producers if insufficient SAF is available but pointed out: “They just pass the cost on to airlines, which inevitably pass it on to customers.” A senior figure at energy company
2015 Heathrow 2016 2017 Gatwick 2018 2019 Manchester
Overall on-time performance (<15 mins) % flights cancelled (<24hr pre-departure)
%
0.0 0.5 1.0 1.5 2.0
69% 67% 69% 1.5% 1.1% 0.6%
0.3% 2016
2017 2018 Q3 2019 Q3 2022 Q3 2023 Q3 2024 Q3 69% 3.7%
62% 1.6%
1.9% 56%
57% 1.4%
Stansted 2022 2023 2024 Scheduled flights Source: CAA FIGURE 62: UK FLIGHT PUNCTUALITY & CANCELLATION RATES
20 40 60 80
0 Source: CAA
Phillips 66, which runs the only UK SAF plant, urged the government and industry “to be transparent” on the costs to consumers of producing SAF. Simon Holt, manager for emerging energy in Europe, warned: “The energy transition is not going to defy the laws of economics.” He told a Westminster Energy, Environment and Transport Forum on aviation decarbonisation: “We need to make clear to customers what the costs of SAF production will be.” Holt said: “We need tens of plants in the UK. We need to accept imports of SAF will be required through to 2030, probably from the US.” Jonathon Counsell, head of sustainability
at British Airways and Iberia parent group IAG, estimated the investment required in SAF production at “tens of billions a year by the end of this decade” and “anywhere between $2 trillion and $5 trillion” in total. In a separate initiative, the UK could
%
become the first country to set up an airspace ‘living lab’ to test how adjusting the aircraft flightpaths could avoid formation of condensation trails (contrails), the effects of which are calculated to double the climate impact of flying. Professor Rob Miller, director of the University of Cambridge Whittle Lab, told the same Westminster forum: “It’s a very powerful effect and, if we could switch it off, we should do it immediately.” Miller noted about one in 20 flights
produce contrails which trap heat and revealed proposals for “a living lab in [UK] airspace,
42 Travel Weekly Insight Report 2025
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