New Eco-Laws Drive Up Lufthansa Airfare Prices

Lufthansa is set to begin charging up to $77 per flight next year to help the airline pay the increasing tab associated with alternative fuels designed to combat climate change.

For now, the extra charge will only be applied to flights departing from the European Union, the UK, Norway and Switzerland, according to a statement on the airline’s website.

The new charge will be added to all tickets issued from June 26, 2024 with departure from January 1, 2025, the airline said.

“The Lufthansa Group is introducing an Environmental Cost Surcharge,” the airline said in a statement. “The surcharge is intended to cover part of the steadily rising additional costs due to regulatory environmental requirements. These include the statutory blending quota of initially two percent for Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF) for departures from European Union (EU) countries from January 1, 2025, adjustments to the EU Emissions Trading System (EU ETS) as well as other regulatory environmental costs such as the Carbon Offsetting and Reduction Scheme for International Aviation (CORSIA).”

The exact amount of the surcharge will vary based on flight route and fare and could be as little as 1 euro (about $1) or as high as 72 euros. Environmental surcharge costs will be detailed for consumers on the booking page, in the price details area, when booking a flight with Lufthansa.

The airline also pointed out in its statement today that it invests billions in new technologies every year and has been working with partners on innovations designed to help make flying more sustainable. Lufthansa also said that it has “actively supported global climate and weather research for many years.”

These efforts aside, Lufthansa maintains that it “will not be able to bear the successively increasing additional costs resulting from regulatory requirements in the coming years on its own.”

“Part of these expected costs for the year 2025 are now to be covered by the new Environmental Cost Surcharge,” said the airline’s statement.

Lufthansa is aiming for a neutral CO₂ balance by 2050. By 2030, the aviation group aims to halve its net CO₂ emissions compared to 2019 through reduction and compensation measures.

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