Prices would continue to rise, says Edelweiss boss Bernd Bauer in “ECO Talk”. Flights should soon become more environmentally friendly.
The “flight shame” hardly seems to slow down the return of air traffic after the corona pandemic. Travel providers are reporting increasing demand despite rising prices. “Prices will probably go up for a while longer,” says Bernd Bauer, head of the Edelweiss airline and the German Eurowings Discover, in the “ECO Talk”.
This is partly due to the lack of staff and the associated capacity restrictions, which are met with high demand. Other reasons are rising prices for kerosene and more expensive services from suppliers.
At the same time, the airlines are announcing that they are becoming more climate-friendly. However, there is still a long way to go before flying is climate-neutral.
Alternative fuels are still too expensive
Fuels that protect the climate are currently much more expensive. The most important measure to reduce CO₂ emissions are biogenic fuels: those made from biomass, for example from plants, used cooking oil and other waste. On the other hand, fuels that are produced with renewable energies or solar energy.
The airline Swiss promotes this: It has entered into a partnership with the ETH spinoff Synhelion. Synhelion produces e-fuels from solar energy and CO₂.
However, it will be some time before such fuels are widely available on the market. Today they are only produced in small quantities and the prices are still high: Biomass fuels are about four times more expensive than conventional kerosene, says Edelweiss boss Bernd Bauer, “solar fuels” even cost about ten times more.
ETH climate researcher Reto Knutti believes that an important instrument for changing this would be to increase the blending quotas, i.e. to supplement fossil kerosene with synthetic ones: “You would have to force aviation to increase the percentages. This would result in predictable demand.” Then the big investors would have an interest in investing billions in the production of alternative fuels.
Bernd Bauer replies that the Lufthansa Group has bought alternative fuels for a quarter of a billion francs that are to be used in the coming years. The price difference to normal kerosene is still very high. “We are therefore dependent on our passengers also taking part.”
Compensations are used only moderately
Anyone who flies can compensate for the harmful climate emissions of their journey. This is what CO₂ offsetting is called using market-based instruments. The airline Edelweiss offers compensation options in which climate projects can be financed.
However, they would only be used “moderately”, says Edelweiss boss Bauer. Today, only around two to three percent of passengers offset their flights. Aviation journalist Laura Frommberg, editor-in-chief of Aerotelegraph, says the numbers are even lower worldwide.
The willingness to compensate is higher for business customers, says Hotelplan boss Laura Meyer. This is because many companies have defined internal requirements for their flights. In addition, the willingness to compensate increases among customers who book their trip through a travel agency. “There you can explain to them which projects the money will be used for.”