Air traffic Lufthansa Group to levy new environmental fee from 2025

Flying will become even more expensive. As of Wednesday, the Lufthansa Group will be charging a new type of environmental fee for flights starting next year, as announced on Tuesday. The fee will also be introduced at Swiss and Edelweiss.

The aim is to pass on some of the costs incurred as a result of EU environmental regulations, for example. This refers, for example, to the expanded, partly voluntary emissions trading or sustainably produced bio or synthetic kerosene (SAF), which must be blended with kerosene from next year in accordance with EU regulations.

The fee depends on the length of the flight and the booking class. It amounts to between 1 and 72 euros, according to reports. Various media had previously reported on this. The Lufthansa Group charges the fee for take-offs of all its Group airlines in all 27 EU countries as well as in the UK, Norway and Switzerland.

The only exception is tickets on the eurowings.com platform. There, only gross prices are displayed to customers.

Quotas for sustainable fuels

Airlines have already shown individual price components from time to time in the past. The best-known example is the kerosene surcharge, which has since been discontinued. In the case of the new environmental fee, it remains unclear what proportion of the additional regulatory costs will be borne by passengers. Individual payments to mitigate the climate impact of a flight remain possible.

The European Union has decided on a SAF blending quota. From 2025, the quota is to be 2 percent, from 2030 6 percent, from 2035 20 percent and from 2050 70 percent. The Lufthansa Group is talking about additional costs in the billions. The airline cites the EU emissions trading system and the Corsia climate protection agreement, which offsets part of the CO2 emissions by purchasing certificates, as further cost factors.

Participation in solar fuel manufacturer

Together with Swiss, the Lufthansa Group is involved in the development of SAF through its commitment to the Swiss solar fuel manufacturer Synhelion. Just last week, the ETH spin-off inaugurated the first industrial plant for the production of solar fuel near the German city of Jülich. The company is currently planning a commercial plant in Spain, where 1000 tons of fuel are to be produced annually from 2027.

From 2033, Synhelion aims to achieve an annual production volume of around one million tons of solar fuel, the company declared last week. This would correspond to half of Switzerland's demand for kerosene. The increasing volume will also make the fuel, which is currently still much more expensive than fossil fuel, cheaper. Production costs of 1 euro per liter of fuel are to be achieved from 2033.

Currently, sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) is still four to six times more expensive than conventional kerosene, Swiss Commercial Director Heike Birlenbach told the news agency AWP. This is an enormous cost factor. The fuel bill accounts for around 30 percent of Swiss' operating costs.

SDA