Airline bailouts point to greener travel — and higher fares

Europe’s $36b of airline bailouts could herald a shift to lower-emission travel as countries impose environmental strings on aid. Those requirements may also mean customers have less choice and pay more. Austria is taking the most radical steps in agreeing to fund the local arm of Lufthansa. The government will impose a minimum E40 ticket price to discourage non-vital journeys while hiking fees on flights under 350 km to E30. And Austrian Airlines services to locations less than three hours from Vienna will be replaced by train journeys. “It’s good to end things that just don’t make sense, such as tickets that are too cheap,” Lufthansa CEO Carsten Spohr said Monday. “It doesn’t make sense ecologically or economically. In that respect I can imagine implementing these measures in other European locations.” France is also taking steps to reduce short-haul flights, requiring Air France to cut domestic services by 40% as part of a E7b package to help it survive the coronavirus crisis, and the Netherlands is expected to impose environmental conditions on funding for sister company KLM. French Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire has said the government wants to remake Air France into the greenest carrier in the world, partly by curbing domestic flights by 40% and pulling services between cities less than 2 1/2 hours apart by rail. His Dutch counterpart Wopke Hoekstra said in an April 24 letter to the House of Representatives that KLM would be need to take steps such as reducing CO2 emissions and night flights to win taxpayer funds.<br/>