The International Air Transport Association held its Aviation Energy Forum 2026 from 12 to 14 May, bringing together airlines, refiners, traders, storage operators and policymakers at a point of accelerating regulatory change in European aviation fuel. Malta-based commodity trading and energy logistics group Alkagesta was among the participants, MaltaToday and ePlane AI reported on 28 May 2026.
Sustainable aviation fuel has moved from an aspiration to a legal obligation. Under the European Union's ReFuelEU Aviation regulation, blending thresholds are already binding and rise progressively through 2050, changing SAF procurement from a reputational exercise into a compliance requirement with contractual consequences.
Implementation is proving harder than the mandate curve implies. SAF production remains concentrated in a small number of facilities, and even where molecules exist, the logistics needed to move, store, blend and deliver certified fuel at scale lag behind. Delegates identified storage constraints, limited pipeline access and fragmented cross-border transport as the most pressing near-term obstacles.
Those findings echo a joint assessment by Japan Airlines and All Nippon Airways, cited in the ePlane AI report, which questioned whether current supply rates can meet stated SAF targets and prompted calls for regulatory timelines to track practical availability more closely.
The forum also set SAF against the broader energy security backdrop. Geopolitical instability, shifting refinery margins and tightening emissions targets are simultaneously affecting the price and availability of conventional jet fuel and adjacent products. For buyers, the operative question is no longer whether SAF exists, but whether an integrated supply chain can guarantee continuity across it.
Participants concluded that the companies best placed in aviation's energy transition are those invested across several links of the chain at once: physical storage, blending capability, certified supply agreements and established delivery relationships. That is the position Alkagesta has been building through its European jet fuel and biofuels desks.
