A lifelong aviation enthusiast who joined&nbsp;AIN&nbsp;in 2007, Curt came to&nbsp;the publication&nbsp;from the broadcast industry where he was a national science and technology television reporter and producer. He writes on the FBO field, aviation finance, and sustainable aviation and occasionally contributes to&nbsp;AIN&nbsp;sister publication&nbsp;Business Jet Traveler. Curt was a member of the AINtv reporting staff that won the 2008 Aerospace Journalist of the Year award for Best Airshow Daily. That same year, he was a finalist for another AJOYA award. He earned an AJOYA for Best Business Aviation Submission in 2018 and was a finalist in that category in 2021. He received the National Air Transportation Association’s&nbsp; Aviation Journalist Award in 2012 and won a Pegasus Sapphire Business Aviation Award for outstanding journalism in 2021.
Before joining AIN, Curt worked with&nbsp;Consumer Reports’ television division, CRTV, and for several local television news staffs. An honors graduate of the State University of New York at Stony Brook, he earned a master’s degree in broadcast journalism from Boston University in 1995. Curt lives in New York State with his wife and two young sons.

Business Aviation Services Editor

Curt Epstein

Even though the RefuelEU sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) mandate took effect on January 1, there is still some confusion on the process, according to Titan Aviation Fuels International CEO Daniel Koetzer.
“We understand that the RefuelEU mandate is aiming to help the environment, which is important, but it is not a one-size-fits-all regulation,” he noted. “It’s just the way it was put together, I think everything was not thought out very well. As with any new project, there are always hiccups in it.”
The mandate requires in-scope aircraft operators (those who fly more than 500 flights a year) to upload a 2% SAF blend at designated European airports—generally those with larger volumes of operations—with the exception of those in Switzerland, which declined to participate in the program.
“The big issue here is that you end up with people who are out of scope, who are not on the list, but the [airport fuel] suppliers are charging everybody,” said Koetzer, adding someone has to pay for the increased fuel blend cost. “I understand the point in the sense that at the airports where there is SAF, they have a tank and they put 2% of the product molecules in there.”
Koetzer noted that currently there is no mechanism for those who are erroneously charged the 2% SAF surcharge to be able to reclaim it. “We’ve spoken to [EBAA headquarters in] Brussels, and we continue to talk to them,” Koetzer said. “I think they will be working on a reclaim process if I have paid it, but don’t have to pay—like VAT.”
For the airlines, which are by definition in-scope, those extra costs can easily be amortized across a passenger load, but the economics of private aviation do not correspond, leading to disproportionate costs for charter operators. “For a guy with a Citation or a Gulfstream V who is filling up his tank, that 2% is rough for him, and there is only one or two passengers in the airplane paying for it, so it’s a bit different,” Koetzer explained.
SAF still only accounts for a minute percentage of the overall aviation fuel supply and, due to that scarcity, Koetzer noted operators are also being charged for SAF even at some airports that do not have it. “There’s not enough product, the airport is too small to justify taking it, just that type of thing, and there is no SAF, but they still charge the 2%,” Koetzer told AIN. “I think [the regulators] are really taking money out of [the out-of-scope operators] pockets because they pay for the RefuelEU, which they are not supposed to pay but they have no real option…in the worst cases they must pay for it where they don’t even get the product. So I think it’s really unfair for these guys, but that’s just the way it works.”
According to Koetzer, one unintended effect of the mandate is a lessening of the appetite among European business aviation operators to take on and pay for higher blends of SAF where it is available. “I think that demand is falling off because people are fueling and having 2% at all their locations,” he said. “Everyone says, ‘Look at my invoices, I have SAF 2% fee that I pay with all my uploads.’” Titan has taken the step to clearly itemize the 2% surcharge on its customer invoices so they can easily consolidate their RefuelEU charges for reporting purposes.
As it helps its clients achieve regulatory compliance, the company is monitoring which airports must supply the 2% SAF blend and is assisting its out-of-scope customers by offering them options where the mandate is not in effect. “We are noting changes in European flight paths as these operators fly to a different airport to avoid incurring extra fees,” Koetzer observed. “An airport like Cannes is suddenly picking up a lot of traffic from Nice.”

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