Last week, Lufthansa Group airlines, which also includes Eurowings, Swiss, Austrian, and Brussels Airlines, announced that it will apply an extra charge of up to €72 per ticket from June 26 for flights that depart from January 1, 2025.

According to the German company, the cost varies and it depends on the route distance and ticket type. The exact amount “is shown on the Lufthansa Group Airlines booking pages in the price details.”

The company also explained that “the environmental cost surcharge is intended to cover part of the steadily rising additional costs due to regulatory environmental requirements,” pointing, among others, to the EU Emissions Trading System.

The example set by Lufthansa is expected to be followed by others, especially legacy airlines which, according to an analyst at Dudley Shanley, quoted by Financial Times, “are historically bigger emitters and tend to have less efficient fleets.”

Airlines have been included in the EU ETS since 2012. However, a recent paper from the European Commision assessed the progress in reducing emissions in different sectors. The document drew attention to the uneven contribution, with aviation being “the only sectors with growing emissions, 12% higher in 2023 than in 2013,” despite falling in 2020 due to the Covid pandemic.