A collection of European consumer groups have launched an EU-wide complaint against 17 airlines for so-called “greenwashing” over their claims about making air travel more sustainable.
European consumer organisation BEUC, along with 23 of its member organisations across 19 countries, are taking action against airlines, including Lufthansa, Air France, KLM, Ryanair, SAS, Vueling and Wizz Air, for making “misleading climate-related claims”.
BEUC said its legal analysis showed that claims about sustainable air travel being made by airlines breached EU rules “tackling unfair commercial practices”.
“We are calling for a Europe-wide investigation into the issue and for the concerned airlines – and the entire sector – to stop making claims that give consumers the impression that flying is sustainable,” said the organisation in a statement.
BEUC cites several examples of “misleading” practices by airlines, including their claims about offsetting, neutralising or compensating the CO2 emissions from flights, which the organisation called “factually incorrect”.
“The climate benefits of offsetting activities are highly uncertain, while the harm caused by the CO2 emissions from air travel is certain,” added the group.
BEUC also takes aim at the airlines over their claims concerning the development of sustainable aviation fuels (SAF).
“Such fuels are not market-ready and recently adopted EU legislation sets very low targets for how much they should represent in aircrafts’ fuel mix,” added BEUC. “This means that until SAFs will be massively available - beyond the end of the 2030s - they will at best only represent a minor share in planes’ kerosene tanks.”
Green fares criticism
The organisation has called on consumer protection authorities around Europe to request that airlines reimburse customers who have paid extra “green” fees on their flights based on “misleading” sustainability claims.
Airlines have increasingly started to offer “green fares” over the past year, including the Lufthansa Group on its short-haul services – all of the group’s carriers are included in the BEUC complaint.
Ursula Pachl, BEUC’s deputy director general, added: “We urge authorities to take the matter into their hands and crack down on this greenwashing practice seriously misleading consumers.
“Whether you pay a ‘green fare’ or not, your flight will still emit climate-harmful gases. Technological solutions to decarbonise aviation won’t become a massive-scale reality any time soon, so depicting flying as a sustainable mode of transport is pure greenwashing.
“At a time when many want to travel more sustainably, airlines should urgently stop offering consumers a fake peace of mind.”
Lufthansa Group said it was “aware” of BEUC’s announcement but had not yet received any complaint from the organisation.
“However, we naturally deal with every complaint that we receive and examine it carefully,” added a group spokesperson.
“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 roadmap until 2030 was validated by the independent Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi) in August 2022 as being in line with the goals of the 2015 Paris Climate Agreement.
“The Lufthansa Group relies on a continuous dialogue and regularly informs its customers, stakeholders and the interested public through various channels about its responsibility to reduce the environmental impact of flying.”
The full list of airlines subject to BEUC’s complaint under the EU’s Unfair Commercial Practices Directive is: Air Baltic, Air Dolomiti, Air France, Austrian, Brussels Airlines, Eurowings, Finnair, KLM, Lufthansa, Norwegian, Ryanair, SAS, Swiss, TAP, Volotea, Vueling and Wizz Air.