One year of Green Fares at the Lufthansa Group: More than one million passengers choose new fare for more sustainable travel

The Voice of Chandigarh :

One year after the launch of Green Fares at the Lufthansa Group, more than one million passengers have already opted for the new fare. In the first year, an average of three per cent of passengers have used the offer, making an important contribution to more sustainable travel. In Business Class, Green Fares tickets are already selected for eleven per cent of bookings via the Lufthansa Group portals. Green Fares are particularly popular on routes such as Hamburg-Munich, Zurich-London and Frankfurt-Berlin. Demand continues to rise steadily in all booking classes, underlining the success of the more sustainable fare. In total, travelers have offset more than 77,000 tonnes of CO₂ since the launch of Green Fares by offsetting their flight-related CO₂ emissions. This amount corresponds to the CO₂ emissions of more than 12,000 flights from Hamburg to Munich with an Airbus A320neo.

The Green Fares are available with Lufthansa, Austrian Airlines, Brussels Airlines, SWISS, Edelweiss, Discover Airlines and Air Dolomiti on more than 730,000 flights per year within Europe and to Morocco, Algeria and Tunisia. The Lufthansa Group has also been testing Green Fares on selected long-haul routes since November 2023.

How the Green Fares work

The Green Fares fare in Europe and to North Africa has added an additional selection option to the Lufthansa Group’s fare structure, which has been in place since 2015. This product for more sustainable flying includes the full offsetting of individual, flight-related CO₂ emissions by Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF) as well as a contribution to high-quality climate protection projects. With SAF, a reduction of 20 percent of CO₂ emissions is achieved, while the remaining 80 percent is compensated by climate protection projects. The Lufthansa Group ensures that the amount of SAF required for offsetting is fed into the airport infrastructure within six months of purchase. As a drop-in fuel, SAF is mixed with fossil fuel before being transported to the airport. For operational reasons, it is not possible to refuel individual selected flights.   

The Lufthansa Group’s CO₂ compensation portfolio currently comprises 15 projects, including two technology-based projects: Carbon Cure’s Sustainable Concrete (carbon capture and long-term storage in concrete) and Biochar (CO₂ removal with biochar). In this way, the Lufthansa Group aims to promote the development of the CO₂ compensation market towards new technologies and offers with long-term binding of CO₂.

Four per cent of passengers use offers for more sustainable travel 
The Lufthansa Group is continuously developing its offers and services for private travelers and corporate customers to offset flight-related CO₂ emissions and is a global pioneer in this area. Currently, around four percent of Lufthansa Group passengers use one of the various offers for more sustainable flying. The company offers opportunities along the entire travel chain. In addition to choosing a special fare such as the Green Fares, passengers can also select individually tailored offers with a higher proportion of SAF, for example, during the booking process. It is also possible to offset flight-related CO₂ emissions during or after the flight. In addition to private customers, more and more corporate customers are also using one of the Lufthansa Group’s offers for more sustainable flying: in 2023, more than 1,500 companies worldwide invested in SAF with the Lufthansa Group.

Lufthansa Group pursues ambitious sustainability goals
The Lufthansa Group has set itself ambitious climate protection goals and aims to achieve a neutral CO₂ balance by 2050. Already by 2030, the Lufthansa Group wants to halve its net CO₂ emissions compared to 2019 through reduction and compensation measures. The reduction share of the 2030 target was validated by the independent Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi) in August 2022. The Lufthansa Group was the first airline group in Europe with a science-based CO₂ reduction target in line with the goals of the 2015 Paris Climate Agreement. For effective climate protection, the Lufthansa Group is focusing in particular on accelerated fleet modernization, the continuous optimization of flight operations, the use of SAF and offers for its private travelers and corporate customers to make air travel or the transport of freight more sustainable. In addition, the Lufthansa Group has been actively supporting global climate and weather research for many years. The Lufthansa Group’s commitment to sustainability is rated positively and above the industry average by independent rating organizations. The company recently received the top “A-” rating in the renowned CDP climate ranking for its CO₂ reduction strategy and implementation for the second year in a row.