Marking a new departure in the era of environmentally conscious air travel, Lufthansa is making carbon offsetting easily available to travelers at the time of choosing and booking their tickets. Indeed, the German carrier has decided to make it a full-fledged fare category.
Passengers can offset the carbon footprint of a flight by donating to reforestation projects. They can invest in the deployment of biofuels, calculate precisely the amount of carbon dioxide generated by a particular journey, and convert the amount into donations for environmental programs. For several years now, airlines have been developing initiatives that invite their passengers to offset the carbon emissions of their air travel. A lesser evil, perhaps, when many airlines prefer to boast about their mechanical merits, i.e., trading in their old planes for A350s or A330neos, new aircraft models that consume less fuel.
Still, all these invitations -- which are only options -- are not always easy to spot on carriers' websites. Indeed, many airlines who make these options part of the booking process prefer to present them -- without always being easily visible -- at the end of the process, just before the payment step.
The Lufthansa group's initiative is therefore far from insignificant. Integrating a "green" fare directly into the price grid makes the eco-conscious options that the German giant previously offered much more immediately visible. Listed alongside the carrier's flex, classic and light fares, this "green" fare is structured around an additional cost that directly integrates carbon compensation. Specifically, 20% of the fare will be offset by the use of sustainable fuel and 80% will be offset by the investment in environmental protection projects. The new fares do not prevent passengers from changing a reservation free of charge or earning miles. By comparison, the "economy light" fare range incurs additional costs when changing the date of a flight ticket and is not refundable.
The "green" fare is available to both economy and business class travelers. For the time being, it is only being offered to travelers in Denmark, Sweden and Norway on Lufthansa, but also on SWISS, Austrian Airlines and Brussels Airlines. It is a trial that has just been launched.
This initiative does not mean the end of the carbon offset program offered directly on board Lufthansa and SWISS aircraft. On some flights, passengers can browse the in-flight entertainment system to access services for offsetting their CO2 emissions.
