Airlines charge all kinds of taxes and fees on tickets, some of which are government mandated, and others of which are carrier imposed. One of Europe’s largest airline groups will shortly be adding a new environmental surcharge to tickets, which is sure to be controversial.
Details of Lufthansa’s new environmental ticket surcharge
For tickets issued as of June 26, 2024, and for travel as of 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 on 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 will be per segment, and you can find the pricing below. As you can see, it starts as low as $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 displayed during the last step of the booking process, in the price details. For revenue tickets, presumably this means that fares will suddenly increase marginally, based on the above amounts.
I’m curious if this is also passed on for award tickets, for situations where a program doesn’t usually pass on carrier imposed surcharges. I suspect not, but who knows…
What does Lufthansa’s new environmental surcharge cover?
As Lufthansa describes it, this new environmental cost surcharge covers additional costs from legislative environmental regulations, such as the new SAF (Sustainable Aviation Fuel) mandate by the European Union (“ReFuelEU Aviation”), adaptations of the European ETS (“Emission Trading System”) scheme, and other regulatory costs.
For travel as of 2025, there are indeed some new environmental initiatives being mandated by the government, which will cost airlines some money.
It’s fair enough that trying to make air travel more environmentally friendly comes at a cost, and that ultimately that cost will be passed on to consumers in some way. I think what’s frustrating to people is that this is now yet another surcharge that airlines add on to a ticket cost.
As far as I’m concerned, just charge what you’re going to charge, and call it a day. A lot of costs in the airline industry have gone up over the years, but each increase doesn’t need to be broken down for the consumer to see. For example, there’s no “increased labor cost surcharge” on tickets, even though that’s a significantly higher cost for most airlines.
I suspect the strategy here is twofold. First of all, it’s probably to remind consumers of the costs airlines deal with, to make airlines seem like they’re not pocketing as much. Furthermore, I imagine there could be some cost advantage here, whether it’s the surcharge not being taxed, or travel agents not getting a commission on that portion of the ticket.
Bottom line
For tickets issued as of June 26, and for travel as of 2025, Lufthansa Group tickets are subject to a new environmental surcharge, ranging from $1 to $72 per segment. Lufthansa Group justifies this by arguing that new environmental regulations are being introduced in 2025, so the airline is passing on these costs to consumers.
To me, it seems like this should just be bundled into the fare, and we should call it a day. But I guess Lufthansa Group is taking the same approach here as with “fuel surcharges.”
What do you make of Lufthansa’s new environmental surcharge?
Membership is free and takes no more information than commenting as a guest. Earn status points for good contributions, and see fewer ads as your status grows.