Speaking at the Airlines 2025 conference, Heidi Alexander said the Sustainable Aviation Fuels (SAF) Bill should receive Royal Assent in the spring – a key step towards unlocking a low carbon fuels market. However, she told delegates this would not mean increased fares.
“Let me be clear – we are not passing this legislation so passengers and airlines end up saddled with disproportionate costs,” she said. “The goal of SAF is to get more people in the skies, not fewer, to secure the right of future generations to fly, not to price them out.”
The Bill will introduce a revenue certainty mechanism to encourage SAF production. “It also includes safeguards so airlines pay a fair market price for fuel and that passengers see little to no change in the price of a ticket.”
Alexander added "demand and desire for flight is only going in one direction” and spoke of the government’s “iron-clad commitment to aviation”.
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She read out a “report card” highlighting some of the government's efforts over the year: "“Airport projects from London to Yorkshire given the go-ahead, a new runway at Heathrow closer than ever before. The SAF bill is before the Lords, the UK Airspace Design Service set to launch this year.
"I hope it proves that in this government you finally have a partner you can trust.”
Addressing delegates directly, she said she and aviation minister Kier Mather were “single-minded to remove barriers holding you back wherever we can”.
“It beggars believe the issue of capacity in the southeast was kicked into the long grass," she continued. "It’s why I gave the green light to Luton’s expansion in April, followed by Gatwick’s north runway in September. Make no mistake, this opens the door to hundreds of thousands of new flights.”
She said this was “a clear signal this government is taking the brakes off growth”.
Alexander highlighted another project, airspace modernisation, with current infrastructure built at a time of just 200,000 flights a year. “We now have more than 10 times that," he noted, adding an "airspace design service" would be set up “before the end of the year”.