(AOF) – Air France KLM, Lufthansa and Ryanair are down while UFC-Que Choisir and 22 other associations from 19 countries, members of the European Bureau of Consumer Unions (BEUC), have filed a complaint with the Commission against 17 airlines for “greenwashing” and “misleading commercial practices”. The airlines targeted are Air Baltic, Air Dolomiti, Air France, Austrian, Brussels Airlines, Eurowings, Finnair, KLM, Lufthansa, Norwegian, Ryanair, SAS, SWISS, TAP, Volotea, Vueling and Wizz Air.
The NGOs criticize the companies for “implying that air transport can be ‘sustainable’, ‘eco-responsible’ and ‘green'”, whereas “none of the strategies deployed by the aviation sector is currently able to to limit greenhouse gas emissions. “It is essential to put an end to these allegations, because if air traffic continues to expand, emissions will continue to increase in the years to come”, believe the associations.
The NGOs also criticize the companies for encouraging their customers to pay a supplement when purchasing the plane ticket to “offset” the CO2 emissions of a flight, “even if the climate benefits of these offsets are highly criticized”, the damage caused by CO2 emissions from air travel remaining “indisputable”.
Third reproach, incite to pay a significant supplement to contribute to the development of “sustainable aviation fuels”. These fuels “are not ready to be marketed” and the recently adopted European legislation “sets very low objectives as to the share they should represent in the mixture of aircraft fuels”, affirm the associations, for whom “until until they are massively available “or at the earliest, at the end of the 2030s, “they will at best only represent a minor part in aircraft fuel tanks”.