The low-cost airline Eurowings, which has recently described itself as a holiday airline, is entering the business of offsetting carbon dioxide emissions on a large scale. In general, these voluntary donations are considered controversial and are defamed by critics as “indulgence sales”.

For several years now, many airlines have been trying to encourage their customers to donate to environmental projects and/or carbon dioxide compensation during the booking process. Many providers' portfolios were later supplemented with donations for the purchase of SAF fuels. For example, the Lufthansa Group offers its own tariffs on many routes in which such things are already included.

However, airline managers always have to admit that only very few passengers actually book the supposedly “green fares” or donate for compensation and/or SAF. If you were to look at this economically, it would actually have to be stopped due to a lack of demand. Also, most passengers obviously do not allow themselves to be misled by propaganda-like TV reports that suggest supposed flight shame, which definitely does not exist. Large media and politicians in particular often follow the wind and when a very small group makes a loud fuss, one assumes that they can collect political change right now because it is now “the issue”. The sales figures regarding “green tariffs” and climate donations in aviation speak a different language than the passenger numbers, which clearly show that “flight shame” is just an invention of the German media.

The low-cost airline Eurowings apparently wants to appeal to those people who can still be influenced, because it is now offering “PlanetBlu” packages that include compensation and/or SAF fuel. It should be noted that SAF fuels are by no means free of carbon dioxide. This will continue to occur during combustion in the engines and nothing will change for chemical and physical reasons.

In any case, Eurowings wants to provide the following compensation options for a fee:

PlanetBlu Pro: Sustainable fuels reduce 20% of flight-related CO₂ emissions, 80% of flight-related CO₂ emissions are compensated by contributing to high-quality climate protection projects.

PlanetBlu Plus: 10% of flight-related CO₂ emissions are reduced through sustainable fuels, and the remaining 90% are offset through contributions to high-quality climate protection projects.

PlanetBlu: With the surcharge, the flight-related CO₂ emissions are 100% compensated by the contribution to high-quality climate protection projects.