In a statement issued this week, German flag carrier airline Lufthansa has announced that it will impose an additional charge of as much as €72 ($77) on all airfares in order to cover the expenses associated with adhering to the new European Union (EU) regulations on the use of much pricier Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF).

The latest EU regulations require fuel suppliers to guarantee that 2% of fuel at EU airports is Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF) by 2025, increasing to 6% by 2030 and 70% by 2050.

Lufthansa said that economy fares on short and medium-haul flights will increase by a maximum of €5, and business class fares will go up by €7. For long-haul flights, business class travelers will face an additional charge of €18 to €36, while first class customers could be charged as much as €72.

The airline stated that the surcharge was designed to offset some of the increasing extra expenses resulting from regulatory environmental mandates, and that the new levy will be implemented on all tickets purchased by June 26 and for flights departing on or after January 1, 2025.

According to Lufthansa, all flights leaving from any of the 27 member states of the European Union, as well as the UK, Norway, and Switzerland, will incur an extra cost. The additional charge will apply to all flights sold or operated by other member-airlines of the Lufthansa Group, which includes airlines such as Lufthansa, Eurowings, Swiss, Edelweiss Air, and Austrian Airlines.

In January of 2022, Air France-KLM became the first European air carrier to introduce an additional biofuel fee to ticket prices. The airline said that they would be implementing a fee of up to €12 for business class tickets and up to €4 for economy class tickets. Currently, Air France-KLM is mulling implementing higher surcharges, comparable to the ones announced by Lufthansa, suggesting that the fees will increase in the future.

In the meantime, many industry analysts have cautioned that the efforts to reduce pollution from air travel will simply lead to all extra expenses being transferred to consumers.