According to Jornal de Negocios, aviation group Lufthansa has announced that it will introduce a surcharge of up to 72 euros per flight in 2025, to pay for the rising costs of alternative fuels used to reduce carbon dioxide emissions.

The additional fees apply to all flights departing from the European Union, United Kingdom, Norway, and Switzerland, from 1 January 2025 next year, the company said in a statement, cited by the Bloomberg agency.

This surcharge will vary between one and 72 euros, depending on the route and the fare applied.

The new fees come at a time when European Union (EU) regulations require airlines to use at least 2% sustainable jet fuels from 2025.

Lufthansa says it "cannot" bear the additional costs alone.

In 2022, Air France-KLM started charging a surcharge of up to 24 euros on flights departing from France and the Netherlands.

The aviation industry aims to achieve net zero carbon emissions by 2050.

Aviation is one of the sectors with the greatest difficulties in decarbonising and the costs associated with this transition are estimated at billions of euros, which will likely be transferred to the customers.

While Europe has introduced standards to gradually increase this type of fuel over the coming decades, the United States has so far relied on incentives to manufacture more sustainable aviation fuels (SAF), made from waste from the circular economy, namely animal fat and used cooking oil.

SAF can be used interchangeably with conventional aviation fuel in aircraft jet engines.