This week, Swiss and its parent Lufthansa group announced fare hikes on flights departing from Europe to cover the cost of complying with European Commission environmental rules, reported RTS.
From 1 January 2025, European flyers will pay a surcharge. Anyone departing from the UK, Norway, Switzerland or one of the 27 EU nations will be have the surcharge added to their ticket price. The amount charged will range from 1 to 72 Euros depending on the length of the flight and ticket price.
The airline said it would not be able to bear the cost of implementing coming regulations, among them a requirement to run aircraft on fuel mixed with higher amounts of sustainable aviation fuel (SAF).
SAF fuel percentages must reach 2% from 2025, 6% from 2030, 20% from 2035 and 70% from 2050. Currently, the amount of SAF produced covers only 0.5% of global aviation fuel demand. Tight supply means the price of SAF is three to five times the price of kerosine, according to Lufthansa.
As long as demand for SAF outstrips supply the airline will pass the additional cost on to passengers, it said.
SAF is not without controversy. Burning it produces greenhouse gases in much the same way as burning fossil fuel. SAF’s greenness relies on an assumption: that the plants that it is made from absorb a similar amount of greenhouse gas. If it leads to land use change this assumption can fall flat. For example, if the land used to grow the crops used to make SAF once had trees on it and those trees were felled and turned into wood pellets and burned then it would lose its carbon neutrality. To work it production needs to be well monitored to ensure such things do not happen. In addition, SAF crops could compete for land used for producing food.
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