Lufthansa Group will provide customers with an option to pay more for certain flights operated by its airlines, under a new fare category which incorporates the cost of using sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) and carbon offsets into the ticket price.
The German airline group says its "Green Fares" will enable passengers to "offset" the carbon-dioxide emissions of their flights. The pricier tickets will include the costs associated with offsetting CO2 emissions, with 80% of the offsets coming from contributions to "high-quality climate protection projects" and 20% coming from the use of SAF, says Lufthansa. The fares will also offer additional status miles and a free rebooking option. Lufthansa has not specified how much more expensive the fares will be than regular tickets, but says they will be priced "according to the market", adding: "There is no standardised model for switching from a 'non-green' fare to a 'green fare'. The prices for these products are set according to supply and demand, as with other fares." The new fares will be available to purchase from 15 February on more than 730,000 flights operated within Europe, as well as to Algeria, Tunisia and Morocco, by Lufthansa, Austrian Airlines, Brussels Airlines, Swiss, Edelweiss, Eurowings Discover and Air Dolomiti. The fares can be booked via the airlines' websites and through the New Distribution Capability (NDC) platform. Lufthansa Group already allows passengers to purchase SAF and carbon offsets through the onboard wi-fi on connected flights, and has been trialling the new fares on certain routes. It says the decision to roll out the fare option on a wider scale was taken in response to "growing interest" in travelling more sustainably. "The Green Fares were already successfully tested last year for flights from Denmark, Sweden and Norway," states Lufthansa Group executive board member Harry Hohmeister. "Now we are consistently taking the next logical step and adding Green Fares to our well-known fare structure for flights throughout Europe and North Africa." Offsetting has been criticised by environmental campaigners, who argue that the only near-term way to cut carbon emissions from aviation is to reduce demand for flying. In April 2022, Dutch advertising watchdog Stichting Reclame Code issued a preliminary ruling against KLM in which it found the airline's "Be a hero, fly CO2Zero" advertising slogan to be misleading. In July, ClientEarth filed a lawsuit against KLM, arguing that the carrier's "Fly Responsibly" campaign was misleading. Johnny White, a lawyer for ClientEarth, said at the time: "When it comes to offsets claims, the law on misleading marketing needs to be enforced. Trying to reassure customers that a small payment for tree-planting or 'sustainable' fuel compensates for flight emissions undermines urgent climate action, is gravely misleading and, the claim argues, is misleading." KLM's then-chief executive Pieter Elbers had in May been challenged at an annual general meeting by a representative of climate action group Fossielvrij Netherlands, who threatened to join ClientEarth in pursuing legal action. Elbers argued in response that the airline was an industry leader when it came to reducing its emissions, including through the use of sustainable aviation fuels.

Airbus and Air New Zealand have teamed with Christchurch airport and three other hydrogen-focused businesses to launch a consortium that will support the commercial deployment of hydrogen-powered aircraft. The Hydrogen Consortium also includes green hydrogen development companies Fortescue Future Industries and Hiringa Energy, and hydrogen infrastructure developer Fabrum. The six companies involved will work together to design a “hydrogen ecosystem” for aviation in New Zealand, and will assess the supply chain, policy and regulatory settings required to promote the development of hydrogen-powered flight. "The consortium we are building brings together a number of pioneering partners with a common interest: to make hydrogen-powered aviation in New Zealand a reality," says Airbus’s vice-president of the ZEROe Ecosystem Karine Guernan. A second phase will focus on whether hydrogen-powered test flights can be held in New Zealand. Under its Mission NextGen Aircraft initiative, Air New Zealand has set of goal of flying a low-emissions commercial demonstrator aircraft from 2026. This would be ahead of plans to start replacing its De Havilland Canada Dash 8-Q300s with low-emissions aircraft from 2030. “To fly hydrogen-powered aircraft in New Zealand we will need an aviation ecosystem that can support it,” says the airline’s chief sustainability officer, Kiri Hannifin. “The Hydrogen Consortium brings together energy, aircraft, airline operator and airport expertise with the aim of bringing this to life.”

WestJet plans to launch 20 new domestic and transborder routes during mid-2023 as Canada’s second-largest airline continues its strategic focus on flights from western Canada. The mainline with these new routes scheduled to launch in May and June plans to increase service compared with 2022 levels by 30% from its Calgary hub, 50% from Edmonton and 10% from Vancouver. New routes from these western Canada cities are scheduled for Atlanta, Austin, Chicago, Nashville and Seattle. Three new US destinations scheduled include flights to Washington DC Dulles International airport, to Detroit and to Minneapolis, Minnesota. This will increase connectivity to other US destinations for WestJet customers through the carrier’s codeshare with Delta Air Lines. Service will also resume from Calgary to Chicago and from Vancouver to Orlando. The airline also plans to resume flights to four Canadian destinations from Edmonton in the summer, including to Penticton, Nanaimo, Montreal and Ottawa. WestJet during February is scheduled to operate 50% more flights out of Canada compared with that month in 2022, schedules data shows. The mainline, however, recently walked back some of its international network plans by cancelling flights from Halifax to Dublin, Glasgow, London Gatwick airport and Paris. WestJet said on 30 January that the decision was the result of its “strategic decision to suspend transatlantic flying from select Canadian cities as it continues to responsibly manage and recover its network in response to capacity constraints impacting the aviation ecosystem”.