Singapore SAF Levy To Raise Ex Singapore Fares From 2026

Published on Nov 14, 2025, 9:14 pm CST

9 min read

Key points

Singapore will add a mandatory SAF levy on all ex Singapore tickets for departures from October 1 2026
Economy passengers will pay between S$1.00 and S$10.40 while premium cabins pay four times those amounts
Transit passengers connecting through Changi on a single ticket will be exempt from the Singapore SAF levy
Levy revenue will go into a statutory SAF fund managed by CAAS and a new Singapore Sustainable Aviation Fuel Company
Singapore aims for a 1 percent SAF uplift in 2026 and to increase this toward 3 to 5 percent by 2030
The Singapore SAF levy will sit alongside, not replace, broader Level 1 safety advisories for travel to Singapore

Impact

Fare Increases: Expect ex Singapore tickets to rise by roughly S$1.00 to S$41.60 per passenger depending on distance and cabin from October 2026
Who Pays: Only origin destination passengers, cargo shippers, and business aviation flights departing Singapore pay the levy while same ticket transit passengers are exempt
Award And Corporate Travel: Frequent flyer awards and corporate negotiated fares will still attract the levy as a separate line item collected by airlines
Route Planning: Travelers starting trips in Singapore may see long haul premium cabins to Europe and the Americas carry the highest new charges
Comparing Hubs: Unlike Heathrow and Schiphol where SAF costs are mostly embedded in airport or fuel charges Singapore is making its SAF levy explicit on tickets

The cost of flying out of Singapore will rise from late 2026, but in a very structured way. The Civil Aviation Authority of Singapore will introduce a Sustainable Aviation Fuel, SAF, levy on all commercial flights departing the country, with ticket sales from April 1, 2026, charged for departures on or after October 1, 2026. For passengers, the levy will range from S$1.00 (SGD), about $ 0.80 (USD), on short Southeast Asia economy hops to S$41.60 (SGD), about $ 32.00 (USD), for premium cabins on long haul flights to the Americas.

In practice, the Singapore SAF levy will show up as a separate line on your ticket whenever Singapore is the starting point of the journey, modestly raising ex Singapore fares while funding a guaranteed one percent SAF blend across all departing flights.

Singapore SAF Levy And Fare Impacts

Singapore is grouping the world into four geographical bands and charging the SAF levy per passenger, with the amount tied to distance and cabin.Band I covers Southeast Asia, Band II includes Northeast Asia, South Asia, Australia, and Papua New Guinea, Band III takes in Africa, Central and West Asia, Europe, the Middle East, Pacific Islands, and New Zealand, and Band IV is the Americas.

For economy and premium economy, which Singapore treats together as an Economy Cabin, the levy starts at S$1.00 (SGD) for Band I, S$2.80 (SGD) for Band II, S$6.40 (SGD) for Band III, and S$10.40 (SGD) for Band IV.Using recent exchange rates around S$1.00 = $ 0.77 (USD), that puts the upper end of the economy charge to the Americas at about $ 8.00 (USD) per one way ticket.

Premium cabins, defined as business and first class, pay four times the economy rate in each band.That means a short haul business class ticket to Bangkok or Kuala Lumpur attracts a S$4.00 (SGD) levy, while a business or first class seat to New York, Los Angeles, or San Francisco carries the full S$41.60 (SGD) charge, which converts to roughly $ 32.00 (USD).

For travelers from the United States and Europe, the most relevant band is Band III for Europe and Band IV for the Americas. A London or Frankfurt bound economy ticket from Singapore will pick up S$6.40 (SGD), about $ 5.00 (USD), while a premium cabin on the same routes pays S$25.60 (SGD), about $ 20.00 (USD).Flights to New York, Chicago, or Los Angeles fall into Band IV, with the S$10.40 (SGD) and S$41.60 (SGD) charges described above.

Crucially, the levy applies only to origin destination passengers, which in this context means travelers whose ticket starts in Singapore rather than those simply connecting through Changi Airport on the way from one foreign point to another.The same origin destination logic applies to cargo shipments, which pay per kilogram amounts by band, and to general and business aviation flights, which face per aircraft charges that rise sharply with wingspan and distance, up to several thousand Singapore dollars for large jets flying to the Americas.

Latest Developments

Singapore is not just tweaking airport fees, it is hard wiring SAF into its aviation policy. The levy flows into a new statutory SAF Fund, managed by the authority, and will be used purely to buy SAF and associated environmental attributes, plus the certification, blending, and delivery costs that come with moving alternative jet fuel into a major hub.A new Singapore Sustainable Aviation Fuel Company, SAFCo, will aggregate demand on behalf of airlines, procure SAF in bulk, and allocate it across carriers operating from Singapore.

This setup implements a key pillar of the Singapore Sustainable Air Hub Blueprint, launched in 2024, which aims to cut emissions from airport operations by 20 percent by 2030 and to reach net zero across both domestic and international aviation by 2050.Within that framework, Singapore has set a one percent SAF uplift target for 2026, with an ambition to raise the blend to between three and five percent by 2030 as global supply and pricing allow.

To enable this, lawmakers introduced amendments to the Civil Aviation Authority of Singapore Act in September 2025 to give CAAS explicit authority to apply SAF policies and manage the levy and fund.The explicit per passenger levy is calibrated so that, compared with earlier estimates in the blueprint, the final amounts are lower because current SAF premiums have fallen, which helps blunt the impact on price sensitive travelers.

On the safety side, Singapore remains one of the most straightforward destinations in the region, with the United States currently rating it at Level 1, exercise normal precautions, in its travel advisory system.The SAF levy is a climate and competitiveness measure, not a reaction to any security or stability risk.

Analysis

For most leisure travelers, the Singapore SAF levy will be an extra line on the receipt that is smaller than the day to day swings in airfares driven by demand and competition. An economy ticket from Singapore to New York that costs $ 1,200.00 (USD) today will see at most about $ 8.00 (USD) added when the scheme starts, which is well under one percent of the total. Even a S$41.60 (SGD) charge on a $ 6,000.00 (USD) business class seat to London or Los Angeles is a relatively small fraction of the fare.

Where the design matters more is transparency and who pays. Singapore is one of the first countries to turn an indicative SAF levy discussed in its blueprint into a concrete, published table that applies to every airline and fare, rather than relying on voluntary surcharges or hidden cost recovery through general airport charges.Airlines must show the levy as a distinct line item, which makes it easy for corporate travel programs to track and, in many cases, to treat as a tax or fee rather than part of the negotiable base fare.

Award travelers should assume the levy will apply regardless of whether the base fare is paid with miles. In nearly all global programs, government and airport taxes and fees are payable in cash on award tickets, and the SAF levy is structured in the same way. That means a mileage redemption ex Singapore in economy to Europe might require an extra S$6.40 (SGD), while a long haul business class award to the United States would carry the S$41.60 (SGD) charge on top of existing fees.

The transit exemption is a deliberate competitive choice. Passengers who are simply connecting through Changi on a single through ticket will not pay the levy, which helps Singapore defend its role as a connecting hub between Europe, the Middle East, Asia, Australia, and the Americas.If your itinerary starts in Tokyo, London, or New York, then connects in Singapore to another region, the levy is tied to the leg that actually departs Singapore and is based on the immediate next destination, not the final endpoint.

Background, how Singapore's approach compares

Other hubs are also pushing SAF, but few do it with a simple passenger levy. At London Heathrow, for example, the airport uses a combination of passenger charges and incentives to push airlines toward a three percent SAF blend in 2025, embedding the cost into overall airport charges rather than a separate passenger line.The United Kingdom is consulting on a revenue certainty mechanism funded by a levy on fuel suppliers, which regulators expect airlines to pass through into fares over time, but again mostly through wholesale prices rather than a branded per ticket fee.

In the European Union, the ReFuelEU Aviation rules and national policies at airports such as Amsterdam Schiphol set rising minimum SAF shares for fuel suppliers and require airports to offer SAF, with costs flowing through into the price of jet fuel and, indirectly, into tickets.Some individual airlines, including KLM, have experimented with route specific SAF surcharges of between roughly €16 and €20 per segment, but those remain carrier led schemes rather than a hub wide, government administered levy.

Singapore's model sits somewhere between these approaches. It does not impose a fuel tax, which can encourage tankering, but instead pools a modest per passenger contribution into a central fund and uses a dedicated procurement company to secure SAF.For travelers, this means more visibility about what portion of the fare is tied to decarbonisation, at least out of Singapore, even while SAF pricing remains volatile and subject to wider market tensions highlighted by airline complaints about "price gouging" in Europe.

For corporate travel managers, the levy creates a clean data point. You will be able to see how much your program is contributing to SAF on Singapore originated trips, which makes it easier to align internal sustainability reporting with actual spend. It also standardizes the cost across airlines, reducing the temptation to chase slightly cheaper tickets that simply externalize the same climate costs.

Final thoughts

The Singapore SAF levy is not going to make or break most trips, but it marks a significant shift in how one of the world's most important hubs treats the cost of cleaner aviation fuel. By publishing a clear table of charges by band and cabin, exempting transit passengers, and tying the money to a dedicated SAF fund, Singapore is trying to move first on decarbonisation without scaring off travelers with sharp, opaque price jumps.

For travelers who start their journeys in Singapore, especially on long haul premium cabins to Europe and the Americas, the Singapore SAF levy will be a small but visible new line on the ticket from October 2026 onward. The core safety picture remains stable under a Level 1 advisory, and the practical advice is simple: build the few extra Singapore dollars into your budget, watch how other hubs respond, and treat the levy as part of the cost of keeping global air travel viable in a net zero world.