Flights with Brussels Airlines are due to become more expensive in 2025 as the German airline group Lufthansa will introduce an environmental cost surcharge from 1 January – a decision that will apply to all its subsidiaries for flights departing from Europe.
Brussels Airlines has been owned by Lufthansa since 2017. The decision affects all flights sold and operated by the German group departing from the 27 EU countries, as well as the UK, Norway, and Switzerland.
Brussels Airlines will impose a surcharge ranging from €1 to €36 on all tickets issued from Wednesday 26 June for departures starting 1 January 2025. The surcharge aims to cover part of the increasing costs due to environmental regulations.
These include the statutory 2% blending quota for sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) for EU departures from 1 January 2025.
Adjustments to the EU Emissions Trading System (EU ETS) and other national and international requirements like the Carbon Offsetting and Reduction Scheme for International Aviation (CORSIA) are also covered.
Lufthansa claims it invests billions of euros annually in new technologies but cannot bear the increasing regulatory costs alone in the future. The airline group aims for carbon neutrality by 2050 and to halve its net CO2 emissions by 2030 compared to 2019.
To achieve this, Lufthansa is focusing on accelerating fleet modernisation and using sustainable aviation fuels. In this case of Brussels Airlines, this will see three new Airbus A320neo aircraft added to the airline's fleet by the summer of 2026. These modern aircraft emit up to half the noise levels of their predecessors and up to 20% less CO2.
