Airlines charge all kinds of taxes and fees on tickets, some of which are government-imposed and others imposed by the airline. One of Europe’s largest airline groups will soon add a new environmental surcharge to tickets, which is sure to be controversial.
Details of Lufthansa’s new environmental ticket surcharge
For tickets issued from June 26, 2024 and for travel from January 1, 2025, Lufthansa Group is adding a new environmental cost surcharge to tickets.
This applies to all flights departing from any country in the European Union, Great Britain, Norway and Switzerland. It also applies to all Lufthansa Group airlines, including Lufthansa, SWISS, Austrian, Brussels, Eurowings, Air Dolomiti, Discover, Edelweiss, Lufthansa City and Lufthansa CityLine (does Lufthansa have enough airline brands?!).
The new surcharge applies per segment. The prices can be found below. As you can see, it starts from $1 in economy on a short-haul flight, and goes up to $72 in first class on a long-haul flight.
The exact surcharge amount will be shown in the price details during the final step of the booking process. For revenue tickets, this probably means that the fares will suddenly increase marginally based on the above amounts.
I’m curious if this will also be passed on for award tickets, for situations where a program typically does not pass on carrier-imposed surcharges. I suspect not, but who knows…
What does Lufthansa’s new environmental surcharge entail?
As Lufthansa describes it, this new environmental cost surcharge covers additional costs arising from legal environmental regulations, such as the European Union’s new SAF (Sustainable Aviation Fuel) mandate (“ReFuelEU Aviation”), adjustments to the European ETS (“Emission Trading System ” ” “) scheme, and other regulatory costs.
For travel from 2025 onwards, there are indeed some new environmental initiatives being imposed by the government, which will cost airlines some money.
It’s fair enough that efforts to make air travel more environmentally friendly come at a cost, and those costs will ultimately be passed on to consumers one way or another. I think what’s frustrating for people is that this is now yet another surcharge that airlines are adding to ticket costs.
As far as I’m concerned, just charge what you’re going to charge, and call it a day. Many costs in the airline industry have increased over the years, but each increase does not need to be broken down for consumers to see. For example, there is no “higher labor surcharge” on tickets, even though the costs are significantly higher for most airlines.
I suspect the strategy here is twofold. Primarily, it’s probably intended to remind consumers of the costs airlines face, to give the impression that airlines aren’t pocketing that much. Additionally, I imagine there could be some cost benefit here, whether it’s not having the surcharge taxed, or because travel agents don’t get a commission on that part of the ticket.
In short
For tickets issued from June 26 and for travel from 2025 onwards, Lufthansa Group tickets are subject to a new environmental surcharge, ranging from $1 to $72 per segment. Lufthansa Group justifies this by stating that new environmental regulations will be introduced in 2025, meaning the airline will pass these costs on to consumers.
To me it seems like this should just be bundled into the price of the trip and we should call it a day. But I think Lufthansa Group is taking the same approach here as it did with ‘fuel surcharges’.
What do you think of Lufthansa’s new environmental surcharge?