The leaded fuel ban that did not happen, and what your club should do anyway
Avgas 100LL was supposed to disappear from Europe in 2025. It did not. Here is where the rules actually stand and how clubs should plan.
For most of 2024 the story in European clubhouses was that leaded avgas was about to disappear. May 2025 was the date people repeated. Some clubs planned around it. A few members sold aircraft over it.
It did not happen, and the reason is worth understanding, because the same argument will be had again.
What the rule actually is
The additive that makes 100LL what it is, tetraethyl lead, is regulated under REACH, the European chemicals regulation. Substances on its authorisation list cannot be manufactured or used after a set date unless a producer applies for authorisation and is granted it.
The date for tetraethyl lead was May 2025. European suppliers applied. In June 2025 the Commission's REACH Committee approved Shell's application, and the major European producers now hold authorisation running to April 2032.
So 100LL is available, legally produced, and will be for some years. The direction of travel has not changed at all.
Why the fleet cannot simply switch
About 17,000 piston aircraft fly in Europe, roughly a tenth of the American fleet, and they are not interchangeable.
Lower compression engines, the sort in a great many training and touring aeroplanes, run happily on unleaded fuel of the right grade. Higher compression engines need the knock resistance that lead provides. An IO-540 or a turbocharged Continental cannot simply be filled with something else because the octane is not there.
That minority of aircraft burns a disproportionate share of the fuel, which is why the industry has been slow. A replacement that serves only the easy half of the fleet does not solve the problem.
UL91, and what it is not
UL91 is an unleaded aviation gasoline available at a growing number of European fields. It is not a universal replacement for 100LL, and it is not motor fuel.
Whether you may use it depends on an approval covering your specific engine and airframe combination. Many Rotax installations were designed for it. Numerous Lycoming O-235, O-320 and O-360 variants are covered by service instructions. Plenty of aircraft are not covered at all.
The practical checks are simple.
| Question | Where to look |
|---|---|
| Is my engine approved? | Engine manufacturer service instruction |
| Is my airframe approved? | Aircraft flight manual supplement or STC |
| Does my field sell it? | Ask, and ask what it costs |
| Does my insurer care? | Read the policy before the first uplift |
The point is not to switch tomorrow. It is to know today whether you could.
What a club should actually do
Three things, none of them urgent, all of them cheap.
Find out where each aircraft stands. For every airframe in the fleet, record whether it is approved for UL91 and where that approval is documented. This takes an afternoon and it stops the question being reopened every time somebody reads an article.
Watch the price, not the politics. In most of Europe UL91 is cheaper per litre than 100LL. For an approved aircraft flying two hundred hours a year, that difference is real money, and it argues for switching now regardless of what happens in 2032.
Do not re-engine in a panic. Nothing in the current position requires a club to replace a serviceable engine. Aircraft bought or sold on the assumption of an imminent ban were traded on a rumour.
The 2032 question
Six years is not long in aviation. Engines being overhauled today will still be flying then, and clubs buying aircraft now should ask what fuel that aircraft will burn at the end of its next engine life.
There is no reason to assume the date holds either. It has moved once. The underlying pressure to remove lead from fuel has not weakened, and each extension has been granted on the argument that no adequate alternative exists yet. When one does, the argument stops working.
Plan for the direction rather than the date. Aircraft that can burn unleaded fuel will hold their value better than aircraft that cannot, and that is true whatever the Commission decides next.
Frequently asked questions
- Is leaded avgas banned in Europe?
- No. Tetraethyl lead sits on the REACH authorisation list, and the original cut-off was May 2025, but European producers applied for and were granted continued authorisation. Production and supply of Avgas 100LL is authorised into 2032.
- Can my aircraft use UL91?
- Many lower compression engines can, subject to an approval or service bulletin covering your specific engine and airframe. Higher compression engines such as the Lycoming IO-540 generally cannot. Check the approval for your aircraft rather than the engine alone.
- Should a club switch to unleaded now?
- If your fleet is approved for it and your field supplies it, there is little reason not to. It is cheaper in most places, kinder to plugs and oil, and removes a future scramble. The point is to know your position rather than to rush.