Lufthansa Group has provided an update on the launch of its emissions-offsetting Green Fares, which it says have been purchased by 200,000 customers since the full launch in February.
The group first announced plans for the fare option in August last year, which allows passengers to purchase a ticket which includes the offsetting of their individual flight-related CO2 emissions, along with other benefits including additional status miles and a free rebooking option.
The initiative was originally launched as a pilot project, before being rolled out across the group’s European and North African routes from February 15.
Lufthansa Group described it as a “successful launch”, with 200,000 guests opting for Green Fares in the first 100 days.
The fares are offered by group carriers Lufthansa, Austrian Airlines, Brussels Airlines, SWISS, Edelweiss, Eurowings Discover and Air Dolomiti on more than 730,000 flights per year within Europe and to Morocco, Algeria and Tunisia.
The routes with the highest number of Green Fares bookings so far have been Zurich-London with SWISS, and Hamburg-Munich with Lufthansa.
Lufthansa Group said that currently around 3 per cent of its passengers offset their emissions, either through the Green Fares, or through other initiatives ranging from “additional offsetting offers in the booking process to the possibility of making an individual contribution during the flight or afterwards”.
The group wants to increase this figure to 5 per cent by the end of the year.
The launch of the Green Fares has not been welcomed by everyone (see our forum thread above), and there have been reports in the German media accusing the group of ‘greenwashing’.
Last month airliners.de reported that only three out of every hundred Lufthansa Group passengers had purchased the Green Fares since launch, although a SWISS spokesperson pointed out the fare cannot be booked through some channels including online travel agents or consolidators.
